The man in the mirror said hello
His helicopter grin fluttering
across pearly whites
A blemish forced his grin to
land
And he began to remember…
Only a sane man remembers
The itchy discomfort of smoke-filled
rooms
And the acidic taste of aspirin
in the morning
Shaky feelings creating doubts
and questions
As discontent seeps into the
marrow of his bones
A sane man whispers
When walls loom tight in the
night
Squeezing air from his lungs
Bringing chilling paranoia
Cold blood turning arteries
to stone
Voices chasing him toward silent
screams
A sane man is scared
Seeing grim reflections inside
his mind
A pantomime of confusion taking
his dreams away
Leaving unseen scars torn with
memories
Only a sane man feels lost
Tearing leaves from barren trees
In lifelong attempts to comprehend
He is left hanging from broken
limbs
With no traces of subtle smiles
A sane man cannot sleep
Brooding over anxieties’ conquest
Keeping notes by the phone that
retain
The pieces of his mind
He is losing
Keeping wary of the stalk of
the gallows’ pole.
Only a sane man kills himself
When driven from the harshness
of a florescent reality
Into the pools of milky whiteness
That cover the frosty pages
of his will
A sane man killed himself
Locked in his room on the way
upstairs
Alone in the shade-drawn darkness
with no tears
As an eyehook from above
Drew in its catch for the day…
The man in the mirror said nothing
His reflection pirouetting in
a helicopter spin
Crashing onto the concrete floors
of reality
Burning in silence with things
best forgotten.
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