Anomie: (n) Social instability and alienation caused by the erosion of norms and values.

Being hemmed in by the night
Is not so much the issue
As the blank spaces resting in the shadows,
Absent of warm bodies.
It is when you can feel parts of your brain
Liquefy, and pour out of your ears,
and you begin to forget things.

How you were once taut and tidy,
Which words are your own,
or even how to speak aloud.

You forget why you should wait
For another three hours
Before going to bed at nine
When you’ve been awake,
and doing nothing at all,
for the last thirty hours.

Synapses not quite firing,
Nerves not communicating
Heart’s desires to the brain, the spine, the muscles.

Parts rusted solid from disuse.