choking on words.

life's encore to my recurring nightmare:
my lungs feel strain
my chest is pressured
and there's a sense of impending--

fuseli's thousand words can't say it:
the need to ease
         this suffocation
         my labored respiration.

if your pulse is any indication
and your roaming hands
more than ancillary
then i think you understand me--

i think your demon's perch,
just above
that scar,
is suffering too.