You Are More Than The Void

There is a void here.

A void that destroys and consumes.

It creeps up on its prey, digesting slowly,

So you don’t realize it’s there until you’re curled up in a corner sobbing,

And you hardly know why.

It’s a sneaky thing.

It can slink in through the dark patches of your past,

Or slither through the cracks in the stone of stress you carry on your back.

It finds you in your darkest hour, weak and weary,

It strikes.

Sometimes it comes for no reason at all.

But it knows its sole purpose.

To destroy.

Once it has you it expands.

For some it comes in cold black waves,

You feel them roll in the pit of your stomach when you are alone.

For others it comes in poisonous vines,

Growing in the mind to squeeze and constrict until you are left,

Gasping, on the cold tiles where you land.

Most escape.

Others are not so lucky.

Some press it down inside them,

Suffocate it until it is a compressed swirling mass,

Lock it away in the darkest inner corners.

Some simply refuse it,

Ignore it,

Fight through it until it is gone.

Some claw their way out,

Gasping and wheezing and sobbing.

And some chip away at it slowly,

Eroding it until it ceases to exist.

Or so it is thought.

But the truth is it never leaves.

Not entirely.

A small piece sits with survivors still, taunting them,

Waiting for them to let their guard down so it can grow.

Consume.

That it the most dreadful part.

For all your fighting it will always remain.

But you are more than the void.