Anguish breached the numbness Slick with shame. Too long lost at sea I agreed to ECT..

Perhaps I am aboard a ship And so the swaying in my brain is not so strange But this tired vessel creaks And empty rooms, and empty decks,

Weeks trickle by, June, then July Finally a hairline crack appears Pressure builds, pain distilled And through the crack there seeps a tiny tear

At least if I’m alive they can expect my ‘best available’ which is surely a better best than if I’m dead I listen very carefully

I suppose, when I am dead, they’ll know what to expect of me – my input and my output I’ll maintain Consistency’s the key, you see,

They ruffle their feathers Hop from branch to floor to branch again Twitch, blink

Leave your plans behind Proceed to nearest exit This is not a drill

The mirror couldn’t rule the world Unless it ruled each little girl And before we uttered our own names We saw our faces in gilded frames

From the luxurious perspective of “afar” I might appear weak, or fickle Like a bumbling robot, that recoils from every little obstacle or bump

Iambic rhythm buoys my little song Pentameter to count her beats to ten Imagined dreams there gaily bob along Aboard a craft constructed with a pen

A sun Flower won’t pain my eyes or burn my skin, won’t vaporise

Body sinks, heavy with the day As dusk falls, fear stalks easy prey Burrows beneath my ribs, around my heart Dread lays on my chest

When worries start to settle with the dusk upon your shoulders Or swirl between the shadows and the fading evening light