Return to Zero

by Joseph McCombs

Demons lodged, unreconciled;
Breakdown needed -- and so simple!
Poundings, pressures etched on brain,
My eyes so black, I could not look
Beyond myself. Yet someone took
These tears for Eliot's saving rain,
Thinking I might build a temple
From the bones of this crying child.

Now, giving life a second look --
The crimson scars, a bygone shame --
This withered man reviews his rumpled
Verses, once so quaintly styled,
Thinks to days when once he smiled
At strangers. Smiles are not so ample
Any more. Yet life remains.
There are more chapters to this book.

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