[poem]

breathe out//bleed out
(breathe. breathe.) [beat.] [beat.]
(the sounds are muffled, baffled by
the sucking emptiness inside your chest.)
-- tell me: what are chips of nothing like?
-- like bitter, sharp-edged crystal clear; like tears.

so let them out. let freely flow, let scour
your shattered fragmentary fears, knocked loose
by incidental kindnesses; by thoughtless touch; by easy smiles.
feel now (as of your tongue against your teeth, a probe)
a different type of vacancy--not vacuum, no:
no-- something softer, cleaner, light.
You've wept the horrors from your heart, and so:
weed out the seeds of doubt, sow hope
and wait to greet that which takes root within your grief
when, at last (so hope!), you're given space to breathe.