Fourth Thursday

It's been awhile since our last check up, hasn't it?

I see you're recovering finely from the last ailments,
My medicines are having positive effects on you,
Aren't they?
Are you following my instructions?

With the crack of sunrise, ingesting
My prescription will keep you sane.
Stained sheets are your medication,
Take once whenever you're feeling
Down, twice if the feeling is that
Overwhelming.

Above that, calming exercises
Are necessary, being addicted to success
Is easily counterbalanced by greater success,
Because eventually,
all you thirst is more.
Your attributes are not yours.
They're all side-effects
And I am the doctor
And pharmacist.

Take each dose the way I prescribe,
Chewing the tablets and swallowing
Broken dates, missed phone calls
And facebook messages.
Sip the nyquil and dream
"I'm sorry, Mom, I can't come
Home for my birthday."
Don't regurgitate, for all that
Will come is
"What do you mean, I've changed?"
And you will slip back,
Relapse,
The state I defend you from.

Take my injections,
I'll vaccinate you from her smile,
Draw a blood sample
With her words dancing with
Red cells
And draw out the plasma,
Polio was cured,
And so can lovesickness.
Let me numb your arms
So you can't feel when you
Hold…

Yea, that's right

Hold her.
Caress,
Give her a slight tickle with your breath
And remind her
That she is not to be there
When the sun rises.

And don't fight the drugs,
Remember how high felt like
What it was like to be that man
That the pills made you out to be.
Remember where I pulled you
From, where I put that tube
Down your throat and pumped
Rejections letters and failing grades
Into your lungs, allowing it to flow
Through your bloodstream.

My procedures are tattooed
To the inside of your flesh.
You said you didn't smoke,
So I gave you vapors.
You said you didn't drink,
So I gave you shotguns
And told you to put the glass
To your lips,
Your heart is a series of
Chambers, and I hold the keys.

I am your own Dr. Harold Shipman,
Engraving my name on your chest
Like dogtags so that everyone
Who sees my title can come to me
And receive the same treatment.
I'll pump their stomachs
Of accomplishment so they
Can remember what empty feels like.

And eventually, you'll reach the real world,
Outside of my red-brick hospital.
Don't worry, as long as you pay
My bills, I'll continue to treat you.
I have the perfect pills for that.