Four Walls

These four walls
Cold, hostile
Giving no quarter
Closing in like an angry mob

Coming to terms with the alchemy
Of silent desperation

Four walls
Sweating nicotine
And runaway dreams
Moist with tears
And broken hearts

Pacing the floor
A path well worn
The wreckage of myriad regrets
Falling from my heel

Four walls
And two windows
Looking out at
More walls still
An endless array
Of hope fenced in

Four walls
With eyes in them
The eyes of rats
Shifting and senile
Marking my every move

Four walls
The sum and whole
Of the universe
Mensurable and incarnate

In here
Where the air is thick
With smoke and daydreams
There is but one option
Facing existence...

...use once and destroy.