when the rhythm fizzles out

it finally hits when your favorite song doesn't hit you anymore and misses the target,
your chest still beats but the rhythm fizzles out until it's just a redundant thump
slowly
becoming
inaudible

and it finally hits you when your favorite CD collects dust on the shelf and misses the target,
as memories decay into fast moving particles of intentional amnesia,
your mind censors itself and turns cold like a grave long before your body is shoveled away

then it hits you when you sell your detuned guitar to buy drinks at the bar and it misses the target,
when your dreams disappear and turn to nightmares of fighting the 9 to 5 debt to yourself, with interest on those strawberry fields you've dreamed about forever
and your chest still beats but the rhythm fizzles out until it's just a redundant thump
slowly
becoming
inaudible

it hits you every day when you pass a school yard and see children playing games that you used to remember playing
and it misses the target
that memory is lost and replaced by varying doses of nostalgia, question marks, and anger

and then it hits you at last that you're as good as dead if you forget yourself,
because even if your chest still beats the rhythm will fizzle out until it's just a redundant thump
slowly
becoming
silent.