Desire paired with loneliness
Is quite the ugly pair
Light the rooms inside my heart
My guts exposed threadbare

And I ponder, And I ponder
All these mountains with no view
And my wanderlust takes over
While my troglodyte subdues

Desperation paired with insanity
Is quite the gruesome two
You foam at mouth and commiserate
With hallucinating beasts inside of you

And I float there, And I float there
In this vat of carcinogens strong
Perfect aim meets jugular
My cat and mouse shan't take too long!

Reason paired with logic
Is a fable wrapped in dreams
There's people who are sane out there?
No neurosis bursting at their seams?

As I sit here, As I sit here
Etching brainsick into stone
The faces of my personal Rushmore
A mocking comfort (I'm not alone!)

Enmity paired with self-affliction
Are the volcanoes I prepare
No need for collusion or invaders
I'm my own Cotopaxi terror!

You don’t worry now
In no way you know what’s in store for you
You are prepared and strong as never before
Your strength is the past you

You landed to keep cultivating
Learning reincarnates the new you
Damped and vexed you go panicky
Materialistic move makes you volcanic stormy

Blue and hazed you loose maturity
You go killer, adverse for humanity
The days pass, scenery changes
You go through creation-devastation phases

Channel changes, fluctuates the life
You put a stop when a move can be miraculously divine
You can shine brighter in the constellation of stars
Why look back, your life is to start

Glory to the art of living
Entices you, forces you to go brainsick
You are composed with the vast experience
Insanity can be pricky, more fierce

This short span is to love not to regret
Put your worries and fear aside
Gather the traces yourself to fight
Every day is a war you are in
Be so confident that you ever win!!

On a rain battered hillside that looks out to sea
Clings an edifice, sullen and damp
The vacuum of night seems to suckle the light
From a singular, sickly lamp
The sign at the gate is of sun splintered oak
And the letters erased by the rain
‘The Slowcombe Asylum ’ they’d long ago spelt
‘For the Brainsick, Disturbed and Insane’

The cold of the air tangles up in your hair
Like a lingering tendril of panic
And the door to your skin as you venture within
Is unnervingly warm and organic
There’s a hole in the window that lets in the rain
And it’s rotted the carpet beneath
The rattle of wind through the weather-worn blinds
Hides the sound of your chattering teeth

There’s a whisper that nibbles the edge of your ear
And a shudder that skips up your sleeves
But the cry that had clung to the tip of your tongue
Is accosted before it can leave
There are pools of neglect where the shadows collect
‘Til the sunlight has faded from view
The security door is of iron and steel
But it’s broken and hanging askew..

~a Shakespearean sonnet~

Dull in the dark brainsick and bootless
Encave to the darkened corner
Lightning direct then hit the back
Emotion was hurting inside of leman
Thy mind tired holding inside the head
Sorrowful let fiery out of
Hold off with drops of tears
At mercy, hidden away from others
Now innocence reveals that thee fools.
        Wipe thy cheeks, cease your tears
        Vanish slowly and start the gears.
      
--Huyen Nguyen