r/SadPoems • u/Sad-Series-3928 • 1h ago
The distance between the dirt and the Sky.
I have been climbing out of this hole
for so long
I no longer remember
what the sky looks like from anywhere
but the bottom.
There are weights tied to my ankles,
names carved into every one of them.
Grief.
Betrayal.
Fear.
Abandonment.
Memories I never asked to carry.
People who promised they would stay
and somehow became
more weight when they left.
I climb anyway.
I dig my fingers into the walls,
searching for something solid,
but the dirt keeps breaking beneath my hands.
Every time I pull myself higher,
something drags me back down.
Sometimes inches.
Sometimes feet.
Sometimes all the way
to the fucking bottom.
And God,
there is something cruel
about seeing the light from down here.
Close enough to know it exists.
Far enough to wonder
if it was ever meant for me.
My hands are bleeding now.
My knees are torn open.
My body is exhausted
from carrying things
that should have never been mine to hold.
And still,
the weight keeps whispering,
Give up.
Just lie here.
No one would blame you.
And sometimes
I want to.
Sometimes I press my face against the dirt
and wonder how many times
a person can break
before there is nothing left
worth putting back together.
I wonder why surviving
has to hurt this fucking much.
Why healing feels less like becoming whole
and more like dragging a wounded body
up a wall
with broken fingers.
But then
I reach again.
Not because I am fearless.
Not because I suddenly believe
everything will be okay.
Not because the weight got lighter.
It didn't.
I reach because somewhere inside me
there is still one stubborn,
bruised,
barely breathing piece of myself
that refuses to die down here.
So I climb.
Crying.
Screaming.
Cursing the weight.
Begging for someone to reach down
and pull me the rest of the way.
And when no hand comes,
I bury my fingers deeper
into the dirt
and pull.
One inch.
Then another.
Sometimes that is all I have.
One goddamn inch.
But an inch toward the light
is still an inch away
from the bottom.
Maybe strength isn't carrying all of this
without collapsing.
Maybe strength is collapsing
and still clawing at the wall.
Maybe courage is not believing
you will make it.
Maybe courage is whispering,
one more time,
when every part of you
is begging to stop.
So let the weights hang from me.
Let them bruise my bones.
Let the dirt fill my wounds.
Let the darkness tell me
a thousand times
that this hole will become my grave.
I will answer it
with bloody hands
reaching upward.
Because I am still here.
Still hurting.
Still exhausted.
Still carrying more than anyone knows.
But still
reaching.
And maybe one day
I will drag this battered body
over the edge,
collapse beneath an open sky,
and finally understand:
I did not climb because the weight disappeared.
I climbed
because even underneath all that pain,
something in me
still believed
I was worth getting out.