Decompensating

They say it
all the time
on the serial killer shows.

Say the latest bit of mayhem
shows “the unsub is
decompensating” and
“we may be moving
toward the endgame.” 

By which they don’t mean
a person of interest
is throwing up his hands
and looking at his bills
and trying to decide how to pay
or escape them.

That person’s so common
they can’t be by definition
a singular person of interest.

No one needs to have
that drama onscreen
when it’s right there
in the kitchen 
and it’s them
decompensating:

the brain not working, hope
down the drain, any blood involved
barely contained within
and so sky-high pressurized
a pin prick would turn into Vegas fountains… 

Vegas? Card games or dice?
Lottery tickets bailing them out?
Online sports betting to the rescue…

a whole broke-ass country
decompensating, 
pretending to hope, 
looking for its endgame.