Before you slip out another cigarette
for your esteemed siamese cat,
consider the damage done
to its noble tin-foil hat.
All smokes and no grass
make Jack a dull boy.
Someone's joke just cracked
and I think it's gone down
the tubes, vacuums excluded.
Perhaps we're all deluded,
deranged, and diluted
as life's escrow feeds
my humble downpour
with anxious bitterness
and an aching heart.
This tenderness is of the living,
anxiety's child the same shade
as I have been given.