"each time i sleep i'm sad. i will be replaced by somebody else in the morning. exactly like me, going around drinking all my drinks, kissing my wife, thinking what i think, making me resentful. but, each time i get up in the morning i'm glad i took someone else's place." - they might be giants
this is really propulsive and heart-wrenching to read. the third stanza where the only praise you give yourself is immediately blunted by the plain, understated language "pretty neat" and even then you discard them all, and that line being broken off on its own dividing the poem into a third before and two thirds after for emphasis, is really painful. rednodge made mention above of the phrase "pointless knives" and this is such a clever double meaning i think it bears repeating. also wanting to touch on the insistence in "shapes of shades," the way that alliteration hits and loops back on itself, really caught me, thinking about this cycle of introspection and illusory form of the self.
+1, really great. really sad. hopeful. you fit so much emotional force in such a small space. commendable work
