poem: blood

they hurt the same as me

they are not my blood

or are they?

for i feel we are one and the same

creatures born of the same catastrophe

breathing in and out

feeling with every bone in our bodies

the somehow universal pain

feeling it hurt in places we did not used to hurt

feeling it heal in places we did not even know it hurt

inhaling the air of a shared place

bleeding into each other

as i realize that,

in some unique way,

we are blood

– Lexie Brooke