We've only just begun to live, and yet
The body counts its debt in silent lines,
No more. The proteins we cannot forget,
Creatinine, the shadow that defines.
Please, that's enough. The headache burns its scar,
The temples pressed with plans we cannot keep,
The jolt awake, the rush, the sterile car,
The white corridors where we never sleep.
Enough. The beeping tallies out our days,
The borrowed blood that he will not repay,
The waiting rooms with their exhausted praise,
The body tallied till it wastes away.
Let us unclench the fist we did not choose,
And find what life remains when we refuse.