What signifies this tightness in my chest,
and why so readily do tears arise?
From what this restlessness and this depressed
affect portending doom and joy’s demise?
How can I so distracted be at games,
or wide awake yet miss a paragraph
I choose to read? And how forget the names
I always knew, as well as how to laugh?

My center threatens it will overflow
and I would climb outside me if I could.
Inertia pierces me; I cannot go
or stay with certainty, and nothing’s good.
If there’s a tonic for this heavy fit,
I lack the energy to reach for it.