I’m so tired of treading water,

Choking on life’s little bubbles

As tidal wave after tidal wave

Knock me down

Robbing the air right from out of my lungs

Nothing I do

Success is a joke

Beginning with knock knock

While sharks nibble at my toes

And all i can do is cry between

Bursts of energy

I’m drowning here 

With no one to save me

The pain overwhelms me 

If only 

I would’ve known

Years ago

To yell “man overboard” when I felt that heave from society 

As it tossed my beaten and bruised brown body

Into the icy waters of hopelessness