Dark blue
Hoodie,
Pulled over his head,
Over his eyes.
Quick,
Silent,
Shallow, breaths.
Feet apart
Hunched over
In his metal chair.

The blue, white,
Light
Dripping down
On everyone
Like a leaky
Sink,
Pooling around your feet.
Your black,
Soft,
Sweatshirt
Clings to your body.
He runs out of the room.
Hood
Still over his face.
No one thinks anything of it.

"I was leaving,
And he-he...
He's out there,
He just..."
You all rush out,
Your "boots"
With the sole
Coming off the right toe,
Drag on the floor.
You feel stupid,
You hardly know him,
But you're following
Everyone
Who does.

Short,
Breaths.
Coughing.
Laying on the
Cold,
Hard,
Plastic,
Church
Floor.
Scared phone conversations.

Red and blue lights
You only catch
Glimpses of them,
Like a hushed
Talk
Your trying to listen to
Only a few words,
Meet you.
"Does anyone know him?"
"I do!"
He sounds terrified.

"Any drugs today?"
No.
He can hardly move,
Like sure,
He can answer.
"Any food allergies?"
No.
"What did he eat today?"
"McDonalds."
"Do you have a history,
Of anxiety attacks?"
Someone stands in front
Of you,
You don't see his reply.
But you recognized
The difficulty
Inhaling...
And the rare
Coughing
The gasping.

"He said his chest felt tight..."

They push him out,
The bright yellow
Of the gurney
With light,
reflecting off it
Hurts your eyes.
"Ok, I need people outside
For questioning."
You stand in the back,
You can't answer anything.
What's the point?

You're nervous
His eyes rest on you
As they take him.
Your palms sweat,
As you wait
For him to look away,
He doesn't.
You never felt so small...

Your chest starts to tighten,
Wined up
Like a wire,
About to break.
A bitter
Taste
Forms in your mouth.
You saw him,
when he was sitting,
You thought
It looked...

And you didn't
Say
A thing.

Today I
Lost my
Temper

Maybe I dropped it
On the way out
Of the store
Where a mother
Swore at
Her five
Year
Old


Maybe I miss
Placed it
When we
Visited
Our old
Church
And everyone
Spoke to me
Like they understood
Me
But forgot my
Name
A lot

Could I have,
Left it
At my dad's house?
Where he
Ignored
My kid brother
And little sister
Told us how much
He
Missed our
Mother
Right after
He had finished
Divorcing her

Perhaps it's
Under the seat
Of our car
Maybe it fell out
Of my pocket
At that red light
The one
When the car next to
Us had a
Man
Screaming
At his wife
In front of their kids
And
One of the children
Cried
And he turned around
And hit them
Really
Hard

This is so bizarre
I can't find it
Any where.

I am a swimmer
In a river of windows.

It gets on your skin,
In your pores
In your nose,
Makes you wrinkled
And misconfigured

I am a swimmer
In a river of windows

You Can drown if you're
Not
Careful,
Keep your head
Above the glass.
The longer you stay
The harder it is to keep going
Keep breathing.

I am a swimmer
In a river of glass,

I dive in
When I'm just walking
Down a street.

Even if I've never been
Able to stay afloat very long,
For mirrors
Are all whirlpools.

What if the sun was a fish of golden flame
What then would the moon reflect
Would the earth be a bubble
Would space be a sea
What would become of
All this human misery
If the sun was a fish
With fins of fire
Swimming here and there
Going wherever it did please
Would the moon be a minnow
Forever bound to follow
Would the earth be a dream
Would god be the water
Would the devil be the worm
Would love be free to swim
Without fear of aches and pains
Without mans clumsy hands
To break the heart
Of the sun swimming
With golden fins ablaze
Anywhere and everywhere
And never ever
Ever
Would love be
Touched by our
Human misery