Choke
I listened to you choke
From one thousand six hundred and
Twenty eight miles away
With time peeling itself apart
No different from a middle
Aging panic attack
You stopped breathing
Despite all you’ve weathered
You’re not who you used to be
Your lungs have weakened and prefer
The sounds of static
Over the cacophony of your joints
Setting themselves ablaze when
Exposed to the sun
A moment of brief intense fear wrapping
Wrapping wrapping wrapping
Tightly squeezing an encompassing black
Pressure rising between the folds
Trapped in the barbed wire tangles
Of your own body
You let out a gasp
Here for another day
Hands still lacerated
Lungs still struggling
Heart still lying on the floor
Another day kissing the end
Blurry moments
Wheezing recollections of
When life was the opposite
Of what it is now
The cruelty of helplessness
