this (poem)

after all this

the sounds quieted

the words trickle into an absolute stop

maybe I have nothing left to say

maybe

time has silenced the echoing of my beating heart

a thump

of a barely-there life

can be barely heard in the graveyard of my ribcage

minutely filling my lungs

this shit is not real

I’ve become the nothing you left

on the inside

4/23