Insubstantial Concrete

I laugh
My skin lying ruined
In strips on the floor.
Isn't life a funny thing?
I lay on cool tile,
Curl into a ball
Muttering.
A change in the mind
Equates a change in the body
My chrysalis stands
An empty shell in the corner.
I pull the shredded skin over myself
My body encased in its folds
My head encapsulated
And peek out through the tears
At the dim light above.
I don't like what I've become
I want to go back,
But not to where I was.
I want to go back
To where other people used to be
That elusive thing:
The happy childhood
Held on a pedestal
An exulted chimera.