obscure neighbour

[Delta40]

Downstairs
his laminate doors are jammed
by rotting, fetid garbage

I tiptoe sideways
through eternal damnation
terrified of catching
his disease
of sickening health

His mental stench
putrifies all things
even rats desert him

Upstairs
carefully, artistically
he creates
a thick wall of faeces
Brick by sorry brick
each motion
thoughtfully wrapped
in newspaper
He knows how much crap
it takes to fill a room

Against the other wall
like a private cellar
cheap plastic bottles
are neatly stacked
filled with grieving piss
from floor to ceiling

When I slide a bottle out
a Jenga collapse
will crash down
upon conscientious deterioration
to reveal
extreme obscurity
inexpressive existence
abject despair
abysmal loneliness

[Lumiere]

O obscure neighbor!
This is heavy, heavy, sad.
And written with exquisite ease of the unity of language and thought.

[MorpheusSandman]

A really powerful piece. What I really love about it is how it serves as an allegory for all of our neighbors (both literal and metaphoric) who we pass in life and vaguely recognize their despair, but how little we stop to help them.

[PrinceMyshkin]

As vivid as it is painful and vice versa!

[qimissung]

"His mental stench
putrifies all things
even rats desert him"

And yet we walk by. You have surely captured the isolation of modern life in this exquisite piece, Delta.

[Delta40]

thanks I wondered about the pain of such isolation that would lead a person to live this way