We Shall Afflict Ourselves

These are the basic
Facts about living:
You must ingest food;
You must excrete waste.
You must fall apart
And vanish someday.
You must have always
Been and never been.
You may perhaps dream
The dreams that wake you
In the morning dark,
Crutches leaned against
The wall that lets one
Prosthetic slide free
And fall, calling out,
“I have pulled myself
Free, in silence, as
I am, in silence.”
And you ask yourself,
Who pulls in silence?