Paradigm

You’re a glistening

Apparition

It’s 102 by the pool

And you can’t remember

The last time you went to school

That professor

Was unsuccessful

He tried inspiring through shame

But his intellectual ambition

Couldn’t be more lame

Had a

Paradigm

But it all liquifies

Beneath the sun

You’d jot a thought

If you wanted one

Bought a new

Bathing suit

Your teacher mother died young

Your salesman father loves a drink

When the deal is done

Empty-headed friends

A means to an end

Isolation can be like a blister

You barely notice until you break

Then you get a visit from your sister

Had a

Paradigm

But it was blinded by the

Taillights on the highway

But you’re never one to heed a warning

From faraway

You’re just on a different wavelength

Keeping those you love in true suspense

Collecting bottle caps in your desk drawer

Spreading glitter on the resumes

Lining your bedroom floor

But you’re so much wiser

Than the career advisor

Dawn just kissed your rusty shed

In your purgatorial backyard

Days of wine and stasis indefinitely extend

Had a

Paradigm

But no one took the time

To analyze the sadness

In your pale, green

Eyes