By Parineetha Karumanchi
Published 2:10 EST, Wed December 29th, 2021
A leaden breath
Escapes her lips
All at once
There is no forward
For the body
Married to modern medicine
It hits you all at once
Pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night
A fanfare of epiphany surpasses
The sky screams your name
Sanity becomes foreign
You become consumed by your own hysterical thoughts
Velvet shrouds consume you
Your eyes shut
And a marriage of pale, winter green, rusted gold and specks of sleepy summer skies
Are all you can see
The low, incessant rumbling of your machines mitigates
And one meek sigh is released
As if struck by a pistol shot
You squirm for one last breath
The elixir of life discharges
Your soul ceases to exist
A quiver kisses the blood
In my veins
My brittle bones
A streak of crimson tear on your cheek
And the earth embraces you.
Parineetha Karumanchi, Youth Medical Journal 2021
Youth Medical Journal 