It is a human trait to want what is best for
Yourself,
To succeed,
To reach new heights where you almost struggle to breathe,
To make it to the top and watch what you have built thrive,
But you've lost count of how many knives
You've planted in someone else's back,
How many times you have fed off the innocence
Of one's vulnerability
And expose it to catapult your delusions higher,
You keep a tally of how many people you have
Crushed to clear your own path to the pedestal.

But everything crumbles in the end.
You hang precariously over those
Who hungrily wait for you to return
To the bottom of the food chain
Where you belong.
After all,
It is survival of the fittest
And we all want a taste of invincibility.

One shot for the sorrow,
Two to be sure,
Three for the morning
To make it a blur,
Five hours of dancing,
Six steps till I fell,
Seven minutes unconscious,
As far as I could tell,
Eight people to help,
Nine nine nine took moments to come,
Ten glasses of water,
An aspirin and then some.

Inject me,
Pierce the skin
And it let it merge
With blood cells and
Bacardi,
Press your lips against mine
And slip the pill onto my tongue,
Don't pull away until each grain
dissolves
Stacks of cash
From selling love in bottles,
Capsules,
IV drips,
Losing our minds as we
Become entangled in unconsciousness.

But when I wake up you're gone.
Sweaty palms,
Goosebumps,
The fear of relinquishing control,
Or even losing my mind?
We become addicted to the visions
In our head,
The dreams we steal from dark corners
Of the brain
When we are intoxicated,
Yet with each passing of time
We rely on what numbs the pain
Of what we lost.