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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “i am not alone” Down in the Dirt, v182 (the April 2021 Issue) Order the paperback book:

Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Excerpts from the Plague Years the Down in the Dirt Jan.-April 2021 issues collection book		get the 420 page Jan.-April 2021 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

Questions after a Friend’s Breakdown

  A man who is “of sound mind” is one who keeps
      the inner madman under lock and key. – Paul Valery

Donna M. Davis

Did you stand in a slant
of harsh incandescence,
staring through hospital windows,
your nightmares and fears
raining down like skulls?

Did the world seem distant—
a bad dream of locusts
with bowed and twisted legs,
their wings vibrating to the sound
of high-pitched violins?

Did you find withered demons
in the clefts of locked halls,
and did they offer you their green eyes,
while the nurses walked by
pale as light bulbs?

Your voice murmurs answers.
It warns me not to explore
that territory of night
where the ground is cracked slate,
and the moon a broken street lamp.

You whisper your strange words
in my ears, until numbers, signs,
and symbols fly away
in the foreign stillness
of a shuttered garden.

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