Bowing out gracelessly

It’s hard to break a thing
cleanly
neatly
in only two or three pieces.

When it shatters, it’s chaos.
A piece might plop in a teacup
skitter behind a door
bounce around corners.

The process takes weeks, months, years.
The clean-up, longer still.
Eating’s irrelevant at such times,
sleep your only friend.

Muse has left the building
once again;
unmasked
unasked.