It’s that nagging loathsome creature that sits at the base of your neck

The one that shows up whenever you’ve exerted your energy

Your desires subside to its control, your plans erased

And you sit there, bitter and filled with contempt.

There’s no stopping it, but you have a choice

Find something better than it and wish it away

Or, revel with its energy and make it your own

I don’t know how anyone could do the first when the latter is so appealing

It changes you, your body strengthens, your mind, your soul becomes fierce.

That familiar fire starts to settle in again

Until finally it begins to die

You’ve survived, your stronger for it

But your wrong, you know that

It defeats you every time, burrowing into your very core

But you dismiss it without a second thought.

Until it comes again.

I know it; it’s that drowning feeling

You struggle as each passing wave bombards you

Each turn of the tide releasing your precious breath

But you go on, there’s something inside of you that fights, it never ceases to give hope

But your wrong again, the next wave comes and you start to give

And then another and you lose your footing

The next wave will hit, it always does and you’ll feel it again.