In this instant,
you feel an infinity
trapped inside your nerves

as everything-you-ever-were
(or ever-still-could-come-to-be)
starts shivering beneath your skin.

It shouts out from within, begging for
attention, reaching from behind your ribs
to beat I am, I am, I am, I am.

It demands the whole world
though you’re afraid that, in the end,
nothing you do will give it what it wants.