THE DEMYSTIFICATION OF MRS. HARTBERN

All I'm saying
is that you know you're high
when you're having spiritual epiphanies
about a washing machine.

I was right this time
and she knew it.

In one breath
I renounced my faith in her
and still she lingers.

Back when the days
were all sweetness and light
she didn't even know
to see the good fight
But in seductive little increments
something changed in her
just as she suppected it might.

She forces the colours open
in her meek and gloomy life
split and spilled
like powder from a capsule
and it makes her world
as daunting as the sun
on Sunday morning
coming down.