when the collapse came in the form of like,
total,
I was trying to add things up but they wouldn't reconcile
and I lay there for some time
but in a while which may have been a long while
I pulled myself together as if my life were not the drapes (and who uses drapes anyway?)

later in the hospital and after they intimated I should be intubated
I closed down like an old TV to have a bit of time for me

even later still ( because the doctors are overworked )
I got a diagnosis
'try some self hypnosis',
said the self conscious  
young intern..

I spurned his advice
because that word's
kind of nice

and went quietly
on my way.