Unsettling isolation--

shivering sterile, exhausting.

No peace, no playful ripple

in the

drab disappointment.

I was plunged

after the glossy wrapping of pleasurable relief

changed

one unsettled afternoon.

Hot, soggy darkness fell,

moonlight exposing

me to be melodramatic.

Vulgar.

Expanding series of disordered desertions.

Mind crisscrossed by exhilarating progress,

ammunition in terms of trivial statistics,

I crashed.

Positively justified

among leaking, grumbling sewers.

But my naivety was stifled

long ago

by obtained corruption

so it seems.

Clocks are unreliable

and effective coping swapped with

crawling paranoia

not sufficient therapy.