subtext

I wake into yet another pop song

tinnily tapping a tattoo in my skull

all efforts at inroads through the noise

fail against the vapid lyrics’ falsetto

let me go no don’t let me go again

and then again until I cannot think

through even a phrase of my own

to have a single thought cohere

I know I should be more careful

not to make the puzzle pieces fit

by pointing out the obvious truth

flowing through everything I hear

and another distraction presents as

I catch the first notes of laughing fear