A Fish Bone Named Melancholy

Have you ever had a singular fish bone stuck down your throat?

Up until now, it was an everyday, and this was just another meal

Fishes for you are a routine really

You've washed them and marinated them, and cooked them and relished their soft flesh disintegrating into flavours your palette has had  a fondness for

And yet, here you are, choking on a bone, the eyes can't see and the throat can't feel

And yet every time you even try to gulp down water, it hurts, it scratches the walls of your throat, somewhat like a needle scratching the insides of your skin

It bleeds but you can't see, it hurts but there's no ointment, no quick fix

You wait a while thinking it will move on, and you'll forgive and forget

The bone, is it really just a bone, or a rather flimsy yet solidary reminder of a bygone that shouldn't have mattered

All you really want is to get over with it

And yet, the bone doesn't move an inch

Stuck onto the insides so intricately, you wouldn't even trust a surgeon to get it right

You think you'll wake up tomorrow, and it'll be a better day

The fish bone will be gone like a short-lived nightmare, buried in your sleep

You wake up and as if on cue, the prick of the bone wakes up too

You're scared of your body, your being

Every time your parched mouth pushes down a lump of spit down the throat as a habit, you hurt again

It's not a fresh wound anymore

It's the blunt pain of a cut being continually cut open before it can even stand a chance at healing

Thoughts cloud your head

Thoughts you'd thought you'd left behind

Thoughts you'd think you wouldn't want to think

Thoughts that have transformed mere mortals into mind-numbing poets

And yet, you don't bleed a word

The brain can't gather words

The pain within, asking to for a fix you don't have

Life inside, seeking hope you seem to have lost

You wish for all of it to just end, whatever the cost

Who decides how costly is too costly

As you begin to lose your sanity, drawing inspiration from your withering voicelessness, thrives

A fish bone named melancholy