empty arms,

empty heart,

mocked

by the ticking clock:

it tallies

every wasted heartbeat.

my body is stone.

this

is waking sleep paralysis.

some unseen demon

sits upon my chest.

i scream at my limbs:

whose hands 

are clasped over their ears?

betrayed by all:

even this

still-alive corpse.

some lives are death

long before the coffin—

some are ash

long before the urn—

this, 

this is one of them.