When Your World Is Washed in Pain

When your world is washed in pain

and there’s nothing you can do to make yourself féel good,
can you simply block an input in your brain?

When you’re circling the drain
and you’re planning to repay your debts in fish food,
when someone else’s pain

is spreading on your own chest like a stain
and you can't have a drink because your wine is blood,
that’s when you block an input in your brain.

What you want is just a steady rain,
a vacant, uneventful interlude.
You can feel the pain

as sheep, counted, on a rolling plain,
a nice, peaceful walk around the neighborhood.
That’s how you block an input in your brain.

But will terror leap the gap? The nagging blame?
The sufferer’s latitude and longitude?
When your world is washed in pain,
can you simply block an input in your brain?