Sense Of Impending Doom

There’s this vise-like tightness growing in my chest when all I do is look around

Twilight’s lengthening shadows bring on a strong sense of my own impending doom

Maybe it’s the gray skies that just cant seem to brighten up all the mud and trash

Or it could be the endless pronouncements of wondrous new economic recovery initiatives

Then there’s this feeling like everybody’s running and I just can’t quite keep up

Seems like simply busting out in tears is appropriate at least once or twice a week

Even though my job seems pretty safe for now, the next round of layoffs still looms overhead

Once or twice a month it seems I wake up in the dark, drenched in a cold sweat

Doctor says that these new meds may take a while to reach their full effect

I surely hope so cause it feels like a lot of things are tightening up all around me

Maybe it’s cause I’m too old to hire, too young to retire and we’re still so far in debt

I just cant seem to get any air as I lay here in bed gasping like some tiny drowning fish

Feels like I’ve been squeezed into a corner that only leads to blind dead-ends

My savior’s not been as effective so I’m trying to turn up the power of prayer a notch

This awful burning that’s gnawing at my stomach speaks volumes, without a single word

Smog-darkened skies make sitting in endless lines of traffic just seem foolish and quite futile

Wise corporate leaders laying off thousands and defaulting on benefits fit neatly into my despair

Feels like the end of the carefree world that they advertised and helped us to finance

Can’t tell if that smell of fear is coming from the dark mall or the local feed lot

Just don’t have any matching ties that don’t cut off the circulation to my brain

There’s a numbness that’s spreading from my thoughts on out to my extremities

I’ve got this tingling sensation and my left arm feels as if it’s fast asleep

They say I’m just innocent detritus from the vast new global economies of scale

But there’s no way to avoid the simple conclusion that this just cannot continue

My ankles are swollen and my eyes are puffy and it’s really hard to get upstairs

A few drinks don’t bring the satisfaction that they always did, not so very long ago

I’m not seeing all the colors anymore or else everything is black or dirty gray

Feels like something quite sinister is flowing in silently from all sides at once

I’m subtly twisting everything I see to support these feelings of inevitable calamity

The dirty, littered streets all whisper to me of some ghastly approaching plague

Haunted eyes stare back at me from deep within the dark sockets of my own haggard face

Seems like the crows wait with ever more raucous impatience on something I do not see