How do you

How do you get back to a time

when everyone you knew was good

and kind, and patient, and soft

– you don’t, says a voice within.

How do you find a loved one again

when they’ve moved away

from who they used to be

– you don’t, it whispers firmly.

How do you find the peace within,

that which was before and is no more

and not give in to the rage

– you don’t, rage all the way, it sneers.

How do you get back to being loved,

regarded, and not just casually checked,

given cold shoulders and rearward looks

– you don’t, silence is the price of the spurned

– you, love, hate, have no reason to exist, it mocks.

How do you, how do you do all this

without going nuts, how do you not

want to set everything on fire and,

and leave the world an absolute ruin

– you do, and whining is the fastest way to a CVA

– everyone’s nuts, the world is on fire, look around

– get on with it, tears are useless in this dead world.

How do you go about just breathing

when the absence of love smothers

when life is – life is beyond your words

– love is that bitch thing that squirms in its sleep

– people can’t bother when they barely get by

– we all hurtle down the wormhole, ill at ease

– our bodies cumbersome, fragile machines

– vain every effort to love, hate, talk, search

– your concepts a waste – your worries pointless

How do you – how do you, you keep asking,

– so let me tell you how real reality is

– since your brain doesn’t seem to twig

– life’s not done with you all at all

– it simply doesn’t factor you in –

– your how-do-yous are gargles in space

– love, hate, feelings are constructs, life isn’t

– that point was missed from the get-go

– and I don’t hear you howdoyou about it

– ask the right question, or die like the rest of them –