![](https://res.cloudinary.com/jerrick/image/upload/d_642250b563292b35f27461a7.png,f_jpg,fl_progressive,q_auto,w_1024/64db55426492a2001d3117ff.jpg)
i was posed the question
how many years?
how long would the world have been
without you
if you had succeeded?
what would you have missed
.
this unfamiliar pain and triumph
boiled over
mostly, because i did not know the answer right away
a deep yearning for life took hold
for the light and the dark
they are both beautiful
a silence inside
one i hadn't noticed existed
tempered by echoes of pain
interrupted by waves of gratefulness
doubled each time i realized I could feel it
.
for the pain of survival
only exists
in the harm i caused others
those days
.
instead
i saw the sun rise and set
i gave and received love
i heard music
i fell in love
i wrote words
i made art
since that sinister simmering whisper
is gone more days than not now
and wanting to survive, thrive
is a pretty new feeling
that question
this realization
of all that time
that extra time
that some people beg for
i would have taken from myself
all of the things i would have missed
all of the things that would have missed me
so how much time?
i could tell you
but it wouldn't matter
because you wouldn't have noticed
but i'm here now
i'm here
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