Empty,

like a Chinese lantern,

subject to every shifting breeze ...

"Sure,  I'll meet you guys to watch the game,

I got nowhere else to be."

"Sure, I'll do a shot of tequila.

And another!  Make it three."

paper thin, delicate and brittle,

vulnerable to the greenest thorn ...

"You talking to me?  You gotta problem?

I'll make you wish you never were born!"

"Hey, settle down, he didn't mean anything.

You oughta relax, go watch some porn."

anchorless, rudderless, soaring without moral compass

or chart ...

"Man, I'm so jealous!  I wish I could learn

to play all those womwn so smart!

He sure gets around, he's leaving a trail

of miles of broken hearts."

drifting beyond the range of attention

of those with reason to care ...

"I'm my own man now,

no one controls me, I do whatever I dare.

I pity the fools so frightened of loneliness.

Freedom like mine is so rare."

Flickering dimly, guttering, spent,

fading into the watery dawn.

Wilting and formless, dissolving like tissue paper

sinking into a pond.

This is what's happened,

what I've been reduced to,

what I've become

since you've been gone.