Thoughts of the Mind and Feelings of the Heart

Can I live?

 The Amtrak sways down the tracks, I see scrawled on the brick wallthree words. 

 In black spray paint and the onlywords that wall has seen.I read the words as if I wrote them.

 "Can I Live!!"The shouted words outgrew itsquestion. The inquiry of life. 

 How can I live?How do I take each breathand then another?What happens when my lungs stop functioning? What happenswhen my heart, which has been beatingsince before I was born, stops? 

 The life I have will fade like a vapor.Every memory will disappear, will wiltlike flowers in the midday sun. 

 Can I live? When bullets are fired,when words fail to register. When letters cannotcompete against the pops that echo off streets and buildings. 

 Can I live? When both Donald Trump and HillaryClinton would be better suited to a high school debate team.When both would be disastrous to our already crumbling nation. 

 Can I live? As cops and civilians pick up arms against each other. Humans fighting against humans and families are left partial. 

 Can I live? "I do not know," I say tothe brick wall clean of all marksexcept those three shouted words.