oneword: vulture

There is an ever present something hovering up above me, above us all. Hunched over, knobby, scaly, strange. Always searching for its "in," its opportunity to feed. It hangs there in limbo, looking for someone else's success, someone else's love, someone else's life. It is a cheater. It is hopelessness. It is the constant nagging that nothing is permanent, that if you don't take care and protect the life you're leading, it might be taken away from you forever.