Nerves taut near breaking
threaten fraying like a wick stretched to its limit,
pricked by a pair of needle-nose pliers,
plied and twisted while denied from fulfilling its deepest desire:
to burn
to ignite
to set the world on fire.
Its housing,
a cylinder of silence,
taxing its tenant.
Isolating tower.
Thick is its base,
long are its hours;
Ticking by in a steady
drip, drip,
drip.
Counting down the seconds til its nonexistence.
* * *
“There are two kinds of sufferers in this world: those who suffer from a lack of life and those who suffer from an overabundance of life. I’ve always found myself in the second category. When you come to think of it, almost all human behavior and activity is not essentially any different from animal behavior. The most advanced technologies and craftsmanship bring us, at best, up to the super-chimpanzee level. Actually, the gap between, say, Plato or Nietzsche and the average human is greater than the gap between that chimpanzee and the average human. The realm of the real spirit, the true artist, the saint, the philosopher, is rarely achieved.
Why so few? Why is world history and evolution not stories of progress but rather this endless and futile addition of zeroes. No greater values have developed. Hell, the Greeks 3,000 years ago were just as advanced as we are. So what are these barriers that keep people from reaching anywhere near their real potential? The answer to that can be found in another question, and that’s this: Which is the most universal human characteristic – fear or laziness?”
― Louis Mackey
1d ago
Jun 2, 2026 at 10:08 AM UTC
Curiosity, I guess.
Can't hear the full story
unless you stick around for the end.
But the full context
requires sacrifice.
Say less.
Offer up my body
with disregard for consequence.
Brain matter,
just a mold for imprinting.
Consciousness
feeling out space
with fingertips of interest.
Blind man in a dimly lit room
grasping for substance,
finds some semblance of meaning;
holds on tight
forever
4d ago
May 30, 2026 at 2:11 PM UTC
On strings of ever-increasing tensile strength.
Are my limbs getting stronger from resisting, or are my movements simply growing more in synch?
Go where led,
lead when told.
Limbs of lead and strings of gold.
A badge of brass upon my wooden breast.
Dance for the masses until you've grown too old.
May 23
May 23, 2026 at 9:01 AM UTC
Drinking at the bar
alone
waiting for another song I know
to come on
so I can bob my head and hum
and sing along
to the few words I know
barely audible
but heard somewhere
perhaps by someone at another bar
drinking alone
nodding along
May 23
May 23, 2026 at 8:25 AM UTC
Light borrowed, freely given, stored in earnest to foster a bump.
A smidge.
A blip on the end of a stick.
Innocuous sphere of potential.
Carry the torch, but fear the flame.
A wick to ignite the future.
Whirled bumps belying beauty.
Clinging to mother until properly swayed.
Venturing forth,
forces pull you away.
Hit the dirt,
find your footing.
The soot of your forebears guiding you up.
Sprig of hope.
Twig of yearning.
Spreading your leaves while the forest lay burning.
May 6
May 6, 2026 at 10:18 AM UTC
Fingerprint brushes stroking the canvas,
paper-thin depth of their ridges.
Tracing mountains and valleys,
hilltops and canyons;
Outlining the scene to come.
Applying pressure.
Fingertips digging in.
A trowel in a garden,
plunged into earth.
Tectonic plates shifting.
Tactile quakes.
Shaking foundations.
Tsunami waves.
Planets in motion.
Lunar eclipse.
A portrait of pleasure.
A kiss on the lips.
May 2
May 2, 2026 at 10:22 AM UTC
The shining sharpened spectacle.
Gawking jaws hung low in awe.
The tales and truth unloaded
on hands built out of straw.
Controlled conflagration,
may they wander where we want.
A cinder in the ashes.
A sinner in the dark.
A path of burning embers.
The ticking of a clock.
Churning children of madness
awash inside their thoughts.
The manning of the maelstrom
broken down into a watch.
Mar 18
Mar 18, 2026 at 9:08 AM UTC
Peeled back,
grubby fingers,
reek of shed skin and inner oils.
Raw nerves
and raw flesh,
abraded on a bed of ancients;
chafed against fetid soil.
New fangs bent biting off more than you could chew.
Weaseled through mud,
blind instinctual tool.
Shrunk upon the wind.
Flakes into the sun.
Coiled 'round the thumb.
Mar 11
Mar 11, 2026 at 11:48 AM UTC
The novelty wears thin
in a life devoid of devotion.
Without commitment,
where's the incentive to go beyond the beginning?
Ever seeking the mysterious solution, soon replaced by rote whinging.
The seeming mania of monogamy -
a shared delusion -
ultimately bought, swallowed or dissolved completely.
Dec 30, 2025
Dec 30, 2025 at 9:34 AM UTC
Flopping together on foreign shore lines,
sometimes you wonder if connections aren't easier to make when there are less wires to cross.
The shock of the sudden cold plunge, mitigated by the fellow warm body.
Hot tongues stuck to frozen poles.
A bridge across chosen isolation.
Dec 13, 2025
Dec 13, 2025 at 11:42 AM UTC