Fully Drained

You did not expect this- the waiting, the heavy
rocks sewn into your pockets, the counting of
vultures wheeling above a carcass, the distance
of wilderness you woke up in. A man begins in dreams,
rising from a river with no memory of struggle. Then,

a stranger says: "You are what grows inside you"

You want to share the things you've learned to love:
your body, cherished words, the light that draws
the moths to flutter against a windowpane, nights
that come like creeping lions over the hills. Defying
gravity, you give until your heart runs dry. Then,

you realize you cannot save anyone.