The Lovely Dark

Have it your way, but I’m not Remaining in this house of rot. I’d hide behind our flowered tree But it’s gone now and its stump won’t conceal me. Early morning, then it’s noon. I fear a storm will settle soon Inside my head, inside my mind. So please be patient, please be kind. “You’re happy, but not too happy, right?” The good doctor asks me in the light Of her small office, and all I can see Is the door closed and suffocating me. Yes, yes, I’m fine; so fine I float In lucid dreams of poems I wrote. But now I’m falling, take a pill And for the insanity you suffer it will Provide a safe, effective remedy, And of those voices you’ll be free. Don’t lie to me. She smiles and fibs, “I swear I’m not drinking again.” I’ll lie here on the hot summer grass And close my eyes when she picks up the glass. Down inside the rabbit’s hole I’ll chase my shadow and console This thing that’s me now; what I’ve become Living underneath her thumb. Heart tattooed upon my hand, She’s so drunk she vomits and can’t stand When I try to lift her to her feet. And for that single second our eyes meet.