Scratching

Clawing frantically

Wildly raking with my fingers,

Trying to hold on

To something you can't see

Or taste or touch

But feel

Deep within you

When you finally find home

But I can't stretch out any farther

My ribs are snapping

Cracking

Like thunder that shatters

Splinters across the sky.

My chest is a vacuum

Sucking in the ruin of my rib cage, a cyclone of

Splintered bone

Piercing

Gulping for air

My nerve endings are fire

Ants crawling through my fingertips, my tendons

Tensing

Tightly coiling up my muscles, curling my arms

Inward, knees to chest

Flexing

Readjusting

If I could only stretch further,

Ripping

The more I move, the more the ants spill out their caves.

Biting through my veins.

Writhing.

I can't stop.

With the world collapsing in you, 

How can you keep still?