Yesterday

yesterday the weight of the world got too much for you to bear. i felt you collapse from miles away, your sigh rustling the cobwebs i pull over myself as a blanket.

you added a cough to your vocabulary, new clumsy syllable robbing you of breath, jolting a belly stretched too tight to stomach another lonesome indignity.

after shaving off an hour at each end of sleep, your head on a pillow trajectory still spins with thoughts of what hasn't been done, and tomorrow feels lost before it dawns.

you'd swear nobody can live this life alone and cry that no hands reach to help you. if you'd stop you could see through the tears and remember the countless fingers holding you up.

a high heel stuck into a train door, propping it open as you sprint those last steps. beautiful stranger who smiled at you on the street, baby's curiosity-stare from mother's arms.

the karma-wheel turns forever, collecting on forgotten debts, returning on forgotten investments. a life saved for a life saved.