How

She had a tattoo on her wrist

“Live Bravely” it said

Pink ink and a flower

“How?” I asked in a panic

“How do you live bravely?

How does merely existing

Not fill you with abject terror?

Every breath a chance gone

So much time wasted in sleep

Regrets like tumors in your brain?

How do you not feel like a nomad

Wandering the desert barefoot

Always hunting for water

Life depending on single drops

Sweet relief you can never find

The raw wide open all around you

Suffocating the light inside you?

How do you live bravely

Standing among the roiling masses

Everyone around you moving

Destiny in their certain steps

But you are somehow standing still

Screaming in their faces SEE ME

And they don’t even blink

Trying to find a way to be real

But always certain you are dust

A floating mote in a sun ray

Never meant to mean anything

Forgotten between the floorboards

How do you live bravely

When you’re sinking in the void?”

I asked, my voice choking on the words

But she had already left the bus

And my stop was miles back