that never goes away, merely elevates to
keep the blue meanies and their minions at bay,
their say-so dwindling from diminuendo
all the way down to the day before yesterday.

Sleep in part imparts the simplest plot
when all you've got is a board and no darts
and the heart was simple too, though, as a tot
I was expected to dream in fits and starts,

when answers came, they were in tousled code
too prone to explode in my palms. I knew the name
of the same rigged core, selected only a la mode
to be my style of corrode. It was a game

to forge contentment where strife ran square
circles around the pair of us. I feel your stare
as my hair stands on end during a fair
approximation of carefully contrived care.