By My Hands

Mass suffering placed solely upon me The weight of the world worn as a scarf, A stray straw away from snapping at the spine; Like the parched camel roaming the desert—empty A lone rider returned to the earth Mirages of something splendid before me gone in an instant, vanishing beneath the sands; A drowning sea of palpable strain Pleading to breathe—choking Death’s hand around my brain, life’s hand around my throat A brighter side of suicide beams beautifully through my pane, A tempting vision of an escape before me A life more radiant in its passing—freedom, the freedom to break the stranglehold—death, death is imminent, most eminently, by my hands