remind me again how wilting pain can prove to be
tell me things that my body had forgotten awhile
my simper has gone and so have my quips
there's just pain, a sea full of it, deep down
my armor a wreck and my senses diminished
i know the nobility is nothing more than wisp
i can look into the mirror and find surprise
the sincerest effort of a man is to just survive

(for Mae, our dear fellow poet. get well soon.)