My teeth ache
My heels ache
My wrists ache
The deep burning pain
That is always with me
My hips like anchors
Of hot iron in my flesh.

I limp up a darkened hallway
To a cold bed
There is no lamp to light my way
All the world is shattered loneliness
And I see no place for me in it
I am lost
On dark tides swept out
To a black sea where no moon shines
The world is full of pain and I
Cannot bear it and I
Cannot blind myself to it.

I know so many don’t live here
In the dregs, cold and dark
But a cold wind blows through me
And their fires do not warm me
And their light does not reach me.

I’m cold, I’m so cold.