Poems: 080921 - September 8th, 2021

[Robert Morpheal]

060921A

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Where is the good thing

that is going 

and don't know where

it's gone. 

Chasing after 

the invisible tail 

lost in the evolution

of our despot selves. 

Writing our fictions

creating our myths 

about magnificent 

wastes of time. 

Spent at illusions

among the shades  

presented sample 

wallpaper eternities. 

Cover a whole life

with one pattern 

that you can buy into

on an instalment plan. 

An isolated corner

in a waiting room 

and still in denial 

that the world ended. 

It did end 

at failed attempts

to put it together 

into anything again. 

The only people known

are the sorts of people

that we never meet 

among formalities. 

Anyone invited 

would never arrive 

having been diverted

by weather reports. 

Extremes some go to

to convince or force

a dead stop to trying 

at whatever it is. 

All that was wanted 

was bloodied hands

taking your own axe 

to your own imagination. 

What you imagined 

is always turned 

into an instrument

of your self betrayal.

You betrayed yourself

for a few coins

misled into believing 

it was the right thing. 

Walk the shore 

looking how to drown

on the far edge 

seas of agitation. 

Watching the ghosts

holding hands

locked and loaded eyes

along the boardwalk. 

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060921B

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No one you ever wanted

ever wanted anything

that you ever really wanted 

with anyone you wanted. 

You turned to the crowd

but the crowd turned away

someone had bought out

their minds and their time. 

It doesn't really matter 

what we choose to advertise

it will always end up 

dialed a wrong number. 

Those are the worst odds 

anyone ever played 

and it doesn't matter what

it's just a gambling debt. 

It doesn't really matter 

if you never placed a bet

on winners and losers

in a game that's fixed. 

All they ever promised 

was their most cruel love 

their coldest love 

their most broken love.

A love as broken 

as the most broken of us

in the ways they break

everything we love.  

They weren't your lovers 

and they weren't mine 

leaving us in between 

a thought and a feeling. 

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070921A

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The sort of complicated

we can never figure out

intended to hold us

in its mental lock.

You cannot get out 

by giving up 

and there is no other way

as it cuts you down. 

Still hallucinating 

outbursts of life 

from a bag of death 

bottom of their river. 

It was a long drift 

to a long way down

breaking that surface

wrong way around. 

It all closes over 

it all closes up 

until nothing reflects 

your there and then. 

No one remembers 

and no one cares

because all there was

was someone else. 

Something about

lessons in wealth

where it always costs more

and you always get less.

It never gets better 

but could get much worse

paying the bills 

for your loneliness. 

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070921B

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If the usual pain 

is not enough

you can be terrorized 

with family plots

for burials

of your memories.  

You are always dying

to something 

something old 

something new 

until dying is a habit

comes before life. 

One grieving 

leads to another 

forming processionals

of the usual events 

and cheery people  

waving at the parade. 

It was a mistake 

counting on anything 

that didn't kill something

cherished inside you 

that you desperately wanted

to keep alive. 

Dying to the people

you used to know 

dying to the things

you used to have 

made dead to anything

you wanted to do. 

There is dying out 

there is dying down 

there is dying away 

but you know 

the dead don't come to life

at the end of their day. 

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080921A

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They punch your ticket

to losing 

because that is all the fare

you ever really had

and it won't take you 

one tiny fraction further 

along the same old line. 

Liking doesn't 

mean a damn thing 

then or now 

to anyone anymore

if they don't like you

doing that belly crawl

in their mud holes. 

Can't stand the games 

they made you play

for handfuls of coin 

so you find yourself 

becoming a soul search 

for a game penalty 

or a lifetime suspension. 

Got to get away 

but don't know how 

once you are painted 

that colour 

into a tight corner 

surrounded by yellow lines

and gunmetal objections. 

Went shopping 

in those catalogues 

for a ghost of a future

forever get lost 

ever never find

where to go 

from where you came. 

They didn't like you 

looking like you did

wanting for anything 

you could ever want 

on any long stretch 

welcome to vague

personal freedoms. 

It was a waste of time 

if you believed

amounting to anything

past more of the same

wastes of time spent

filling in the holes 

you can never fill. 

You never made it 

to be anyone's hero 

reinvented and redefined 

strict accordance 

current vernacular

pop up version usual 

brainwash stations. 

Nervous flutter 

of butterfly stomachs

feel the threat levels 

come with emptiness 

so emptied out

we forget to eat 

while they eat us.

Being the bone 

in the mouth of a dog

three heads up

howl at the moon

pleads your case

won't get you in

to another Hell.  

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080921B

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Those friends 

you thought you had 

wrecked you 

knowing the burdens 

of their proof 

were all on their side

keeping them safe. 

You weren't there 

and they are always

any side of anything 

more popular 

than a worn out

old shoe 

that no one wants.

Carry that load 

until you expire 

somewhere past 

always best before 

those warning dates

secret coded 

on the packaging. 

Wrap it up 

with some nowhere 

to send it to 

knowing they left

with those outlaws

always looking 

for some purer pain.  

Strong armed 

and bruised 

is the latest rage 

and they get excited

about going

the other way

at the turn around. 

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080921C

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I keep writing all

those sorts of things

you never wanted me

ever and to say. 

Convulsive thoughts

from the shake downs

crushes of the head

into the hips. 

It was never a kindness

and what was expected

expected too much

in expectation of nothing. 

Most forms of thought

becoming anachronistic 

and widely unpopular

types of disruptions. 

The campaign 

waged against reason

gathers momentum 

as a tap dancing choral. 

Is there any time 

or are we too late 

for rapid elimination 

of happiness. 

Wipe away your eyes

for having peeked 

when you were told

they must remain closed. 

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080921D

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Liking your looks

and something about you

I can then short list you

on that list of people

I never expect to meet. 

We are kept so busy 

with absurd projects 

and some are building 

rockets to the Moon

while others count it up. 

I had no idea 

every letter I ever wrote

was a suicide note 

in one translation 

or another. 

It was customary 

to be forced to die 

to something 

end of each paragraph

after a point was made. 

That would keep us 

from unpopular thinking

which could deviate 

from commercial terms

into unthinkable romances. 

There is no proof

about the wealthy 

having any other options 

but we hear rumours 

being deliberately leaked. 

Talk of freedom 

is something cheap 

being mass produced 

made habit forming 

and officially approved. 

We could fantasize 

about anything 

that would never happen

having failed to obtain

any seals of approval. 

It takes time 

for the censors to review

objectionable portions 

of our dreams

returning them for revision. 

We are worn away 

by the process 

that leaves us nothing 

we would have enjoyed 

outside of the too ordinary. 

For the sake of histories

you always write me off

as being too strange 

and I write you off 

as too boringly common. 

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080921E

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Removing the moisture 

of any remaining emotion 

you could be ground up

into a fine powder 

that could then be sold 

at an immense price 

for a very small amount

in little plastic bags. 

In that manner 

your worthlessness 

could achieve some worth 

as a magic dust 

similar to many things 

ground up that way

into fine powders

to give them some value. 

Rhinoceros horn

Tiger bone 

eye of Loris 

gall of Bear 

Deer antler

dried millipede

desiccated snake 

rat and hen.  

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