Poetry: Our Collective Hunger

I cannot feel my fingertips
Watch them blue
Watch them purple
Watch me shiver through winter and summer
Light as air
Heavy with the water
Dead as a rock
I sink to the bottom
I am no different from any other
I am our collective hunger

Creep on the inside
I heard my name again
But I am alone
Surely the voice is my own
Turn down the music
The voices play again
Cool on my ear drums
That breeze that settles in
Rattles through my bones
Makes me jolt and shake
Breaking through barricaded doors
To leap off the highest place
Light as air
Heavy with the water
I fall like the rain drops
No different from the others
I am our collective hunger

Phlegm in my throat
I cannot breathe again
Hold the button longer
And help will usher in
Pulse is fine, I hear
Temperature is cool
But the sweat at my hairline
Says more to me than you
Laughing in the hallway
Ignores the piercing pain
Sunshine behind my eyelids
Even though it's night
Gripping my fist
My pulse- falling easy and letting go
Light as air
Heavy as the water
No different from any other
I am our collective hunger