Not Myself

The dark awakes

The cradle breaks

The stone is slowly rolled away

A soldier kneels before an empty room

I’m not myself today

The faint applause

The bottle’s jaws

The broken strings along the way

They number all the things I hide from you

I’m not myself today

I try to sing

But I can’t hear a thing

So I look out on the afternoon

The street’s ablaze

In the late summer days

And somehow everything is out of tune

The broken bones

The semitones

They fail to keep the beast at bay

Upstairs you close a door and slide from view

In the dark

I thought I heard you say

“My dear, I’m not myself today”