Growing Intensity

Jose waled home slowly

  in a hoodie and jeans.

He wans't ready for the fight at home;

his mom would bring up another broken school window.

His backpack weighed him down

  getting worse every second.

Jose was really smart

but he had an indiscriminately short fuse.

It was so hard to control, even when he tried his best.

People always acted impatiently with him-

  it wasn't his fault, you know.

But when it got really bad,

Jose was convinced he'd lost his mind.

He'd see shadows or shit;

dancing sticks and a visible wind outdoors.

But sometimes...

sometimes his hallucinations made him laugh.