Paranoia

They don't call anymore, do they?

Not even to find out how you are,

let alone to know things from your life.

You are left to cry alone,

get unhinged,

paranoid,

stingy,

shrivel up

age by yourself,

wrinkle and fold yourself away into nothingness.

Time speeds up

slows down

speeds up again

and then stalls too -

all relative to how you feel

and your circumstances.

And for some reason

when these are negative,

time is slower and stalls more,

why can't it be the other way around?

Year Worm

And before I know it The leaves are gone The trees are bare The nights are numb It's winter again. How? How on earth did my legs My hands My face My skin My bones Make it through without realizing another year? When they called, did I even register for an extended warranty?

Suddenly

It's like that time of the night

when you have eluded sleep to do something

and now sleep eludes you despite you trying to get a hold of it (I have work in the morning damnit!).

It's like standing in the ocean

in the calmest of waters without realizing

they are not the only danger to you, there are undercurrents (and there go your shades!).

It's like a weekday alarm

going off in the morning like a foghorn after

finding yourself in a sudden drinking binge the night before with friends (now they get curses!).

It's like sipping on a cup of tea

made by your usually naughty child out of suspicious niceness

and realizing there's salt in the tea instead of sugar (why did I ever think he has changed his ways!).

It was all just like that-

sudden,

smothering,

raw,

unexpected,

familiar,

wild,

unwavering.