Six Too Fast

six too fast

it creeps in—

crawling its way up my esophagus 

laying heavy on my tongue

the bitter bile burning the cave top

sizzling sicklets of blood bouncing

off taste buds and settling in the 

concave caverns of bone

a small pool for the acid soldiers to rest.

my stomach churns, 

expanding insides to ripped seams,

IV fluid building up in the corridors of flesh, 

my eyes are fading and someone is saying something somewhere but 

i can’t listen because the inside of my mouth is raw and bloody

and full of phantom sores 

and my heart, pumps one beat too slow.

then six too fast.

second time’s the charm.