Memories are like scars 
old wounds borne,
shiny with age, like a rite
of passage, the past dredged up
real and unforgiving.
Survival  <<-- survival? from what?
the truest badge of courage.  <<-- a bit cliche?

Like alarms that will not silence,
waking and sleeping, startling 
as a stain, that oozes into fabric, 
life, falls open, exposed,  

Poked through, as red-hot sparks 
pierce into the shell of a self 
ripping through like parchment 
pages of a book, leaving 
pieces of words and ash,
as silent mourners gather
sharing screams into a pillpw  <<-- I understand the “muffled” screams
they link their small circles 
of light and hope

Grief and angst, pitiable
plaintive
as wolf cries at the moon,   <<-- lots of similes prefixed with “as”, “like”. Maybe the reader can figure them out.
the footfalls of potential prey
peeling away, hurried by fear, 
their hearts beating faster,
restive and praying
for the howling to stop.