Existing vs Surviving, a poem

Surviving sounds like something.

Like fighting. Like getting up

and choosing, every day, to stay.

Existing doesn't ask that much of you.

Existing is breathing without deciding to.

Eating because the body demands it, not because you're hungry.

Answering "I'm fine"

without checking if it's true.

Surviving has a direction.

Existing just... continues.

Some days I tell people I'm surviving.

It sounds better. It sounds like there's a fight in me still.

But most days, if I'm honest...

I'm just existing.

Moving through the hours

because the hours keep coming

whether I move through them or not.

Maybe surviving comes later.

Maybe it has to.

For now, existing is enough.

It has to be.

Because some days,

just being here...

is the only fight I have left in me.