VERTIGO

you can label this feeling
of nearly unbearable
straining an "invention,"
and yet, it doesn't lessen.

this ache, this
visceral pain
isn't located
in the brain.

and blaming others
for seeming better
at keeping things together
doesn't matter.

if you are lucky,
and you are, folks
keep telling you --

you wake up
alone
even if someone is beside you.

and you have to
face it, the day, just
as you lie there at night

eyes wide open hoping
something or someone might take you
away.