I feel this crushing weight of Life, perching itself on my weary shoulders. Adulthood has been less of my lifetime than the childhood I wish I had back, but it still feels so nauseatingly there, clinging to my skin with the sticky persistence of a summer sweat. It's closeness dampens the air going into my lungs so that I can barely catch a full breath. Each heave of my chest comes with a bombardment of all that I have to figure out and know and be, beating on my chest like a drum until I fall to the ground, head falling sharply into the bed of my fists.














