I sleep generous hours
yet I am still exhausted
this is breakdown
I eat nourishingly well
yet I am still hungry
this is breakdown
I snarl and growl fiercely
yet I am still enraged
this is breakdown
I sob deeply
prone upon the earth
yet still I am not comforted
this is breakdown
I am going through The Change
what was no longer is
a shell I didn’t know I wear
is cracking
unknown parts of me are showing
tender, sore and frightened
I’m turning to mush
It’s not just me
The Earth also wearies and sobs
her People rage and hunger
Another afflicted youth
machine guns children at school
we change nothing
this is breakdown
Another politician
lies to our doubting eyes
we shrug
this is breakdown
Another uniform
murders a young Black son in our streets
we change the channel
this is breakdown
Another billionaire
robs us blind and deaf of trust and voice
we sigh in our armchairs
this is breakdown
We are going through The Change
what was no longer is
we are cracking
truthful parts of us are showing
we are not who we say we are
we’re turning to mush
I do not need more fire
I need water and spacious air
The world does not need more air
it needs floods and firestorms
Oh tell me how to have patience and faith,
how to set this immoral apathy
ablaze?
Oh tell me this strange affliction
this stifling restriction
is a chrysalis
and not a shroud
© S. Rinderle, 2/4/15
Published in Malpais Review, Autumn 2015