Slipping Beneath the Waves

Some days, hope rises,

a fragile whisper that maybe, just maybe,

there’s a world beyond this cage.

The pain shrinks to the edges,

a shadow you can almost ignore.

But today is not that day.

Today, I am drowning,

dragged under by waves

of relentless symptoms,

each breath heavy, each moment cruel.

The air tastes like despair,

and I remember:

there is no way out of this sea.

A friend slipped beneath the waves today.

Another light extinguished,

another soul consumed

by the same relentless tide.

How many more will I lose?

How many more before it’s my turn?

The reflection is sharp:

this body is both a prison and a grave.

It holds me, but barely.

What I would give—

oh, what I would give—

for just a single moment

without pain,

without the weight of this disease.

To breathe without shackles,

to move without chains,

to simply exist

in a world that doesn’t hurt.

But today, I only exist.

Hopeless.

Watching the water rise.

-Giusiana