The pressure to scream these words weighs heavy on my back Caught between the need to speak and the impulse to react Rash words like swords thrust into swine Severed deep and seeping wine Words like flesh on wire barbs Tearing wounds from faded scars And the words wont come And the stares burn cold Every time I try to express these feelings, Words cut my throat like shattered glass Hung myself on the words of others Nailed upon this cross of verbs And im drawing a blank While burning with the rage Of a thousand sleepless nights Searching for my voice With a mouth filled with blood And severed tongue Crawling in the darkness Ive become Scratching for some substance to retrieve Knowing that ill never match my peers DROWNING.