Poems: 260821 - August 26th, 2021

[Robert Morpheal]

240821A

----------- 

The body is broken

in various 

technical ways

but the mind 

wants to party 

past somewhere 

world's end. 

A condition 

worsening 

made noteworthy 

to sufferers 

such as the famous

and Dr. Strangelove 

on a wheelchair. 

Wheel me in 

and wheel me out

from Purgatory

so I can pretend 

to come out 

clean as a sterile 

sharp instrument.

Not about who 

you would let in 

but about whom

you would cut out

of any deal 

for any future 

dispensations.  

It isn't kindness

that is expected

and birth 

is always painful

being expulsions

from darkness 

into cold disregard. 

No one knows 

what to really do

with enigmas 

of gloved souls 

and other things 

not yet inclusive 

to encyclopedias.

Manual produced

on the cultivation 

of deranged minds

first impression 

copy rite 

sold completely out

first imprinting. 

They taught 

the wrong answers 

to test questions

favouring cheats

told at bedtime 

and taken between 

regular meals. 

Whatever you did

was useless

caught in between

those refrains 

about too little

and too big 

for any likings. 

Nothing to show

for it 

and kept guessing

what it really is

failed to identify 

with what you were

supposed to. 

Keep walking 

into a sea 

until closed up

right over topped

what you thought

might make you 

someone free. 

-----------------

240821B

-----------

Reproduced 

final rattle

on a broken line 

drop off life

clutter bin filled

with discards

that didn't sell. 

You cannot sell

yourself 

at a discount store

even if wrapped 

tight plastic wrap

locks in any sex

under pretty covers.

It never is 

what people wanted

no matter 

the repackaging 

same face 

and various features

similarly notified. 

Not the look

was advertised

this season

might never be

any season  

everyone dreams

making a spread.

We are all models

representing our own

personal line 

designer disasters 

trying to make it

with someone 

wants someone else. 

One customer 

from our wanted list

really buying 

the mess we left 

hanging useless

as a bone

on a rusty rack.

--------------------

240821C

----------- 

Got brained 

about money

can't be made 

from anything 

suspected of being

love gets paid 

the usual hate. 

Romance novels 

now abridged 

to fuck or pass 

without sentiment

love letters

Portnoy complaints

to an analyst.

Some of the girls

go dark side in

to join the farce 

scavenger hunt  

typical boys

look Darth Vader 

killer instinct. 

Expensive toys 

cheaply made 

but all moulded 

into suggestive

body parts 

being repurposed

as mission critical. 

Pop up 

childhoods build

invisible empires 

populating them

slave muscle 

slaughters 

the competition. 

Far side 

of the playground

competing rough 

sex under

monitored nod 

turns away

from display units.

Demonstrations 

clutter the park 

protesting

for and against 

the general terms

of hand picked

random ideas.

Gutless wonder

ascends podium

babbling brooks 

capacity raking

popular nothing 

attention's sake

call girl strut.  

They took away

the last places 

anyone could hide 

leaving expensive

normal stares 

spending normal

time and money. 

Fake stars 

studded leather 

skies of united 

strapped in 

school days tight

sanitary scene

at pulpit pictures. 

Lolita never

grows up 

because it pays 

to be thirteen

forever 

learned the ropes

at twelve. 

It doesn't fit 

proves fragile 

China porcelain 

complexion 

fade out 

to nothing delivers

that far out.  

Crowd drools 

knee jerks 

consensual patterns

cheap exchange

bought into  

new realities 

to avoid deletion. 

Life is prime 

asking anyone 

known to them 

where to get

good drugs 

to crystallize

abstract concepts. 

Fear factor 

more often 

home grown 

in deep 

personals soil

word mulched 

old patterns. 

No good now 

remembering 

nothing new

players play 

their rerun starts 

every first time 

the same tune.  

No one is

who they were 

and few admit

to the crime

of want to be 

failing to realize

they can't afford. 

We talk 

while waiting 

on saboteurs 

leaked out

as comic book 

black cars

and dark glasses.

Super heroes 

safety margined 

by facts

not in any files

keep everyone

more distant 

at cocktail parties. 

Rummage sale

rags of trying 

to discover what

there is to say 

by studying 

fine print 

on labels.

Leaves armies

of the desperate 

blind groping  

the void grasp

at anything

might prove out

as interesting.  

How to impress 

your friends 

without pushing 

cookie cutters

into faces

avoiding mention

of any dying arts. 

Conversation 

never improves 

past nightly news

and what it was

cat dragged out

then savaged 

in the alley. 

--------------      

250821A

------------ 

Held in between

the want 

and the loss 

gatherings 

with ghosted

make believe 

plotted friends 

were once upon

a good time

way back 

children's books

begin in a place

always long ago 

and far away

getting visited. 

Illusionist scam

where it happens 

old friends visit

and you feel

the good bye 

parties for those

who are leaving 

more than skulls

left behind 

watering holes 

gone bone making 

dry lips crack

fried away

the old cement 

of undertakings. 

It feels too late 

to make up

new endings

for fictional lives

only to go on

all the same

not really 

a member being 

who is remembered 

for anything 

change orders

keep coming in 

piling up 

unprocessed 

mostly rejected. 

Black tempestuous 

seas the souls

turbulent under

current pulls 

at wear surfaces 

surface calmed 

vain beliefs 

treasure moments

anticipated hauls 

along dredge

ploughs the murky

deep thought

creeping of abyss

opens and closes

swallowing up.

If you had arrived 

a million

years and earlier 

that too might not 

have been soon

or soon enough 

avoidant of any 

the usual torn

apart feathery

and scaly things

before beginning

at intensive studies

on what it means

to be chained 

to a rock.  

------------ 

260821A

------------ 

Literal effect

making killings

uncounted 

backwards digits

undoing of fists

braced wrist 

hand falls off 

counter's edge 

having separated

from reality. 

Gone under 

not coming up 

another down

long slide push

paddling a broken

shell canoe 

through midlands 

of nowhere 

turning a bed 

made soft earth. 

Previously occupied

at a common form

of burial 

feeling the worms 

burrowing in 

all those places 

that had not died 

to feeling touched 

by feral desires 

and madness. 

Letters mailed

to nobody 

reveal casual state

lost minds

resident cornered

the other side 

at really down

those rabbit holes

being several sizes

too small. 

Answers never

come out

from crowd dotted

crossed avid

readers absorbed

in what they think

what they were told

right things amongst

given selections

keep changing. 

Push a button 

win a prize 

in the everyone 

winners game

feeling more alone

than the last

living freak

in the last tent 

last freak show 

closed carnival. 

-------------------   

Nothing at all to say. You have to figure it all out for yourself, even though I know that might prove far too hard, and you might give up trying. That is what you always do. You give up trying.