I have been up
For days
Weeks
Months
Time thinning like breath on glass
The hours slipping loose
From their names
Sleep circles me
Like a wary animal
Close enough to hear its breathing
Too far to touch
My thoughts flicker
Small frantic wings
Against a window
That will not open
I keep moving anyway
Through the soft ache
Behind my eyes
Through the hum
That settles in my bones
When the world goes quiet
Somewhere in the distance
A version of me is resting
Dreaming
Whole
But this version
The one still standing
Learns to live
In the long
Trembling stretch
Between one heartbeat
And the next
And still
I rise
I rise
I rise
Not because I am unbroken
But because morning
Keeps finding me
Awake