meltdown in poetry

when the prevailing winds conspire
to leave me the comparatively
level-headed person in the room
holy Christ
something has gone wrong

when my usual steady rain
of melodrama and self-doubt
pales against
torrential tornadoes of delusion
man, watch out

when I
seem rational
when I
have the notions that gain traction
as clinging to the Earth-reality
instead of wild exaggeration
because they're being compared
to straight-up
paranoid hallucination
batten down the hatches
and hide the goddamned hatchets
and fucking call Nurse Ratchet
because
damn

this isn't to say I really mind
being the canary
in sanity's coal mine
a half-weirdo to gauge
when the real psychotics
have gone off the page
I'm just saying

man
things are getting weird
in context I'm actually pretty normal now
just as I feared
just as I feared

because in the land of the completely bonkers
listen to the simply-off-kilter sing
make them your guideposts
your kings and queens
and then take cover

because shit's about to get unreal
it's what I fear
it's how I feel
now