Help Me I’ve Been Shot

Help me

I’ve been shot  

Not in the body

the body would be easier

This was a quieter place

A deeper place

The kind you can’t point to  

On any map

It happened fast

A moment I didn’t see coming  

Raised its weapon  

And fired straight through  

The part of me  

That still believed  

I was safe

I dropped

Not to the ground

But into myself

Into that dim hallway  

Where old fears  

Hang like portraits  

And every door  

Leads back  

To something I swore  

I’d already survived

I press my hands  

Against the wound  

But they pass through it

Like trying to hold  

A shadow still

I can feel the past  

Leaking out of me

Warm

Relentless

Refusing to clot

If someone finds me 

Tell them I wasn’t careless

Tell them I wasn’t weak

Tell them I was running  

Toward a brighter room  

When the darkness  

Took aim 

Tell them I was trying 

Even as I fell

Even as I whispered  

To whatever listens  

In the silence 

Help me

I’ve been shot

And I’m still  

Trying to stand