A Low Grade Fever

A low-grade fever
flaring: that is how
the chronic urge
to self-destruct becomes
acute, the same 
for one person as it is for
a nation: sometimes 
a dank heat goads one to 
frantic energy, one begins
slashing at anchors; a desire
to let all go bubbles inside
like infection; one may
say it’s better to burn,
better to release and fall
to embers and let another
build again; no matter
how familiar it is
it seems so simplistic,
so terrible, 
to feel in the daily news
a steam that resembles
the heat of
one’s own will to die.