My eyes swell, not shut
They crack open
They see a fuzzy image unclad in glasses and grainy with trapped matter.
But underneath they puff and somehow resist
All of it.
Lights and sights and sounds.
Can I see sounds?
Maybe my ears send a warning shot racing across my nerves.
Damn.
That sound. You don’t want to see the cause of that.

I guess we call it tired.
But tired is up all night to cram for an exam.
Too many “last drinks” on the night that got away.
A grueling 12 hour shift ground to a halt. Ground deep into the ground.
But all that tired has
Release.
Ugh.
Release.
Finished tests, hangovers that end, bones and flesh reaching bed.

What do you call the feeling though,
If you work the grueling shift
Everyday
9 years straight.
What word can describe that?

Dead? Hardly.
Stuck? A bit.
Deluded? Destructive?

What word does we use for a tired that we can’t pinpoint the origin of and no rest on the horizon?

How is it I feel?