I am succumbing beneath the wave of hungry dark.

Pain that lurches and squeaks under my chest through

Inky sludge the colour of restless sleep and blurry afternoons,

And no matter how hard I cry, how hard I breathe, how deep

The nails digging in my soft skin press and press with the crash

Of sobbing, screaming pressure that bleeds like a tyrant down

My spine, greedy as it squeezes its chilling fingers between every bone.

It knows I am broken.

It knows I have cracks, fissures in aqueducts keeping away the tsunami

Bound to destroy cities, lift the earth off of its axis and rock me

To stressful dreams of nightmarish demons, with smiles stretched

Over pale, corpse cheeks.

It knows I lie, alone in the black of night.

Hugged in a curtain that blocks out the stars

As I push myself over the cliff's edge,

Hoping to find my childhood down below.

Swim like lilies, soft and slow

And when you break the midnight surface

When the air glitters with rain after storm

Feel the twist and churn of a thousand butterflies

Fading into the curling, violet clouds.