meet the gaze of your reflection
the weariness and exhaustion
a hammer suddenly pounding
your poor, overworked lungs
what did time steal from you?
how did someone familiar
become so unrecognizable?
like amnesia except you remember
every mistake that has led you here
the destructive pattern of self doubt
accompanying every morning
the moments of happiness lingering
but never staying long enough
the realization flashing like an ugly,
neon sign on a run-down side
of your pre-frontal cortex
in slow motion, the atoms of your body
devoured, eaten away by reality