Burdens

Burdens got me down

the weight so heavy

I walk stooped over

lines etched into my face,

Haggard, disfigured unrecognizable

mouth curved downward, eyes like ghosts

fingers, gnarled, contorted

Skin wrinkled and withered

a spirit broken and battered

hair, color of snow covering a mountain

a heart hard as a glacier, cold and frozen

tears a permanent manifestation

of sorrow lies deep; buried, entrenched

in a soul over looked, abused,

misused, never loved

Is this my hell to carry?

The mass of the world on shoulders

already loaded down with enough evils?

Am I my own worst nightmare?

are these burdens of my individual making?

I’m tired now, I think I’ll rest but for a little while

Sleep may bring to me what life cannot

Where my burdens don’t follow me

I can be at peace; tell me, how long will I sleep

A minute, an hour, two days, forever?

Burdens got me down; I’ve found my escape