HYPOXIA

if tenderness
is oxygen

 

then

 

i am
submerged—
adrift in
a quivering sea of
obscurity;

 

i was
hand over hand
overhandoverhand

 

until
i wasn’t.

 

until

 

your apathy
set my lungs
on fire.

 

until
salty surrender.

 

drifting,
drifting—

 

i have
become a
seagrass of
slights
in this
opaque, puddled
darkness

 

i inhale,
i exhale
your briny disdain.

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