The tape peels at my skin, a sharp pain shooting across my chest
I can't bring myself to fully fill my lungs, stuck in permanent shallow breaths
The air thins as the heat makes it harder to breathe,
The nagging fear thatmy skin is tearing pushing it's way to the forefront of my mind

The trail does not yield,
Not with thousands of feet and tens of miles left to gain,
The mountains don't care, our trails having been etched into their flesh,
The blood of one pales in comparison to the pain forced upon them for centuries

He doesn't care either
Another "slip of the tounge", each one harder and harder to excuse
He had not known me, having no excuse to confuse me for something he never met,
every correction falling on deaf ears and unchanging words

I can't bring myself to say anything,
I have long accepted that this is a situation in which I cannot win.