If you breathe, it hurts less

 

If you breathe, it hurts less, I think, feeling my bones rattle with each breath I take.

I no longer crave food I know will never come.

I crave air, but fear if I take too deep a breath someone might notice me and tell me to stop.

I breathe less and hope the pain will cease, though I know it never does.

Each breath reminds me I still live when many I know have died.

This is the real dilemma: to breathe or not to breathe.

There is no other question,

As long as I breathe, I will feel pain; and as long as I feel pain, I know I am alive.

And yet, if I breathe, it may hurt less.