Every inhale is a heavy heartbeat, Each exhale a sigh of misery. Days bleed into one another. The trees grow greener, And bare once again. I am burdened by your absence.

Left alone, I drag myself through The deep woods we once ruled together, And though I cannot see you I know you are on the other side Of this tyrannical thicket, Feeling the same heavy, malicious pull That consumes me At every waking moment.

Suddenly, through the darkness, A single tear slips down my soiled face. My heart aches to remember The moss we carved our names into, Your voice tangled In the wind between the trees, The log we called a throne, A crown of weeds.

Buried in the mud Is the echo of your footprints; A vine curls Where your hand once traced the bark. I still pause in the darkened clearing Where we used to sing songs Of the past And of our future

That was us— Breathing, Moving, Living.

But now, As I lay gasping on the ground Alone, That future feels so far away, Unreachable. Unimaginable.

For darling, we aren’t living anymore— We are simply just Surviving.