automatons
marching ever onward
choking down
a thousand inconveniences

everyone i know
is
broken
playing
pharmaceutical
roulette
tostayonestepahead
of potential
side effects

one to not feel
one more for the nausea
another for the heart
this one
makes that one
less toxic
the red one
regulates the thyroid
the blue one
keeps it hard
the white one
brings sleep
while the mask
keeps them breathing
through until
the next bucketful

hyperregulated
numbed and compliant
trading the horrorshow
for consistency
at the lowlow cost
of the peaks and valleys
whichdefineexistence

how bad do things
need to be before
someone decides on
selflobotomization
over willful participation
before someone
somewhere
does anything