I’ve lost so much of what I once had. 

All that I’m left with is the shrapnel and fragments of a child who was drained to sand.

 I can try to reconstruct what once was with the scattered pieces I have left, 

but the most I can render is an empty shell,

 full of cracks and held together by glue that would succumb to the elements given the chance.

 All the life, 

the joy, 

the passions I once exuded 

left drained by a vampiric world that perches high above,

 like an owl with yellow dead-set eyes, 

stalking the living and piercing those who try to leave.