It Lingers: A Poem

What if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it?

What if the universe cracks and no one feels it?

What if I’m the only one who can see the flame?

What if the fire in my house is just a mind game?

What if that cosmic feeling that something is wrong 

Has really been an illusion all along?

What if the bad ones prospered and all the cheaters won?

What if I was forced to live a life I didn’t want?

What if the water poured in while I was lying around?

What if the next thing will put me in the ground?

Because It forms like droplets

It slides down from the heavens

To a people who are thoughtless

It might look like a weapon

It creeps and climbs

Sticks itself in places hard to find

Needle to the brain

Smiles in the pain

Hammer to the skull

Half-dead thoughts to cull 

It fills your lungs and fills your throat

It weighs you down and makes you float

You choke, you wail, you scream, you cry

You sit in silence and watch it die

Doubt—it lingers

It festers and haunts

Snuff it out while you can

Before you are gone