Countdown

Five.

   Four.

      Three.

         Two.

            One.

Five years of self-induced medicine

addiction contorted mutilations that

offer a moment of fraudulent solace

only to be ripped out my caving chest

as I remember I lack control

   Four months of heavy breathing

   as the poison courses through my

   already brittle bones that slowly

   disintegrate as the clock continues

   to tick every deafening second

      Three weeks of inner suffocation

   cowering in the repeated torment

   of lessened lung capacities and the

   oxygen that turns to lead in my

   choking blood stream

         Two days of constant instability

         as the monitor monotonously

         continues to beep the rhythm

         of a heart that can't seem to

         find a way to beat.

            One hour of shameful tears

            clinging to skeleton cheeks

            and swollen eyes that close

            as the pronounced carnage

            finally meets its end.

Five tears.

   Four gasps.

      Three inhales.

         Two exhales.

            One last breath.