I’m told that I am too young
to feel the world…

Yet,
I feel every year weighing
down my bones
forcing every archaeologist to second guess
the being they have extricated
from the Earth’s
most intimate parts

every month holding
my head under salt water
screaming in my face:
“Swim!”

every week scratching
at my skin
digging nails deep into
the flesh of my body

every day
kicking my ribs inwards
pleading for them to stab
deep into the things
they have worked
so hard to protect inside of me

every hour asking for me
to give up, give it all up

every minute digging into
my being, my existence
asking for the happiness
I have so long
perfected

every second wonders
why I am
so strong

But the clock has
yet to invert the life
it so painstakingly made
but has realized
the omission in
-DDF