LIke some etherial thing

My pain flutters and twirls

And rains down upon me in rivulets and ribbons

darkens where it drops, stains me and burns

And stays and stays and stays

Until

I am almost washed away in it

And then

Like a tiny, tinny voice

Like a distant bell

I hear life calling me

Begging and urgent

But small, small, small

I listen but hear it as if I am under water

A current of my own pain

Washing out the sound

Like so much silt and flotsam

But I listen still