Punch Line

So much for lovers

Now we’re barely even friends

I can’t figure out where I went wrong

Who’s to blame when the whole world ends?

Fires destroy everything

That hasn’t already been rendered to dust

And free will has disappeared

Once “wanting to”�"now only “must”.

Shrinks scramble to be the first to figure out

Just what has brought me here�"

I find myself shooting at shadows in the dark

Only to find, as the sun rises on the enemy I fear

That the only thing damaged in the room

Is my own shattered reflection in the mirror.

Once we were lovers

Apart only by chance

Now permanently separated

By an unforeseen happenstance.

A misconception�"

A flaw in our points of view

Biased opinions only facts

And though I search, I cannot find

The one I loved, in the person I knew�"

A name, nothing more, remains

Defying time’s proven logic, and still�"

The white coats sway, another session needed

And would I like to sample

The newest anti-depressant pill…?

Our world hovers on the brink

Of extinction or total war

But our politicians, unconcerned

Perfect their tans on the Hawaiian shore.

Love means nothing

Not while pride is on the line�"

And decaying corpses pile up

No guiding lights from a ransacked shrine.

The apocalypse can’t get much better

 An eternity awaits the martyrs and saints

But humanity has destroyed utopia

For everything it touches, it taints.

The doctors chuckle�"I’m quite a joker

The nurses’ laughter sounds like screams

For I warned them that the world is ending

The Statue of Liberty’s dress

Is falling apart at the seams.

Reviews

[SpokenWord]

I am never the best at picking a poem apart because as a reader if I take something away then it was worth the read. I could always make suggestions like try paragraphs it gives the eyes a break and controls how fast we read or pause, could even suggest in certain parts to speed up our read by using shorter sentences. Maybe if I learned English better I could be a spelling and grammar nazi but... In the end I ask myself what am I taking away in this read anyway so all that doesn't always matter.

I don't know what drives people more insane, is it love? or is it that we are destroying our world? Are they connected in some way? Your poem starts and ends by giving up on love and everything between that is justification for it as the main character goes insane and I can't really say insane because what is truly insane is the fact that more of us aren't worried about the state of our world today. You went from love to politics to social awareness all in one poem but you laced them together with new medications and a delusional mind that in the end is merely speaking truth. It is funny how when we go against the establishment we are crazy and need medication. I liked the little sharp humor you placed here and there and the way your poetic style drew the scene out where we had to think to see the message. This poem is too good to rate or to criticize instead I prefer to tell you why I loved it. Superb work it was great!