Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 

They called Kierkegaard insane,
poor man, poor fool..
ink turned against him
by a city that feared
his furious clarity.

That label is given still:
“mad,” they say,
when a voice rises
against the hidden thing,
the shadow crouched in the soul,
the beast that feeds on silence.

It is not flesh that is cursed,
but the fortress
built stone by stone
from secrets unspoken,
where the child’s cry was buried
and the monster kept the key.

Yes, let it be cursed again..
that ancient predator
that left spirits trapped,
that tried to leave others
shattered in its claws.

If eternity should open,
even the darkness of God
would rise against it,
tumbling the beast
through endless years,
stripped of its power,
stripped of its stolen faces.

Call it madness,
call it folly.
The words remain jagged,
for truth has teeth,
and silence has killed enough.

At least the monster was named
when others smiled politely
and called it “past.”
At least there was no collusion.

And if the witness is written off,
    so be it

   Better condemned
   for fighting the beast
   than praised for leaving it
   enthroned.



There is always a risk in fighting the beast: the risk of becoming monstrous in the process. To call it by its true name, to drag it into the open, often looks like madness. Kierkegaard wore that label, and so do all who refuse silence.

The truth cuts jagged, not polished.. and yes, in the fight, one becomes scarred and monstrous. That is the price of standing against the darkness. This piece is not for the crowd. It is a cry against the beast itself, spoken into the universe entire.

Yeah.. exactly..

"Control yourself,
take only what you need from it--
A family of trees wantin'
to be haunted"

https://youtu.be/fe4EK4HSPkI?si=hyG3BpKE6I8bn82p

for those who understand,
no explanation is needed
xox
 Aug 16 Rob Rutledge
Pho
The moon leaves the night
to find the sun,
the sun leaves the day
to find the moon
and I stand in the shadow
they pass between them.
 Aug 16 Rob Rutledge
Pho
I weave constellations
to find the pulse of another soul,
stringing light across the emptiness
like a fragile bridge of bone.

But the sky leans in too close
and I shatter every star,
letting the darkness spill through
until even my name is gone.
No one important
I'll die alone, unknown
Quiet in the night
I threw a Rolling Stone

Just the little poems
Honeymoon in Rome
Temples at Angkor Wat
Very far from home

                Shiva!
 Aug 16 Rob Rutledge
Zeno
Walking through the fabled night
of ancient skies and gray sidewalks
Stepping into the world
of hot humid June

When metals towered over the sky,
Like match sticks lined up above stones
the luminescent streets blazed
into the night

Those glasses that shimmered
bright lights and yellow fireworks,
Falling with gravity,
relishing in sweet air and downfall

The wind from a distant land
that caressed the trees,
their shadows dancing
on the streets

I saw you there in broad shadows
when I marched amidst silence
I have lost my path
to the night that has fallen

But in your eternal flames, I stood
knowing that I’m still here
A warm wind touched my face.
I walked out into the open space,
I saw a blurry, fading horizon.
Somewhere, you are,
I am here, after a sleepless night,
Writing another reflection,
Tired like an empty battery.

I do not like the masks that shout.
The fight over who is right.
I do not want an analysis.
I touch the bark of the tree,
I hug the birch with my arms.
I see its white pages,
Written with irregular lines,
Torn, fluttering in the wind,
Which I cannot read.

Her eyes look straight into me,
They understand –
How well they understand me.
The rustle of leaves lessens the tension.
Autumn will come soon,
The summer wind whispers to me:
This country, this language,
These people, these doubts.

This is not blind luck,
This is your blessing,
Purple, rainy months, a fleshy heart,
Falling hair, joy when relief comes,
Crying into a pillow –
So as not to disturb another’s dreaming
About the so-called reality.

Bare feet touch the ground.
I tread carefully on the edge of worlds,
To be both here and there
With my integrity.
I am everything and nothing.
I am gestures, epilepsy,
The belief that I see human thoughts,
Inconsistent with what they say.

Blue, sun, and somewhere you.
How good that you stayed.
When everyone was saying:
She is different,
She talks to ghosts.
You stayed, showing me
Your true face.
Jazzy nights filled with romance
                      and glassy dreams !
Buildings lit beneath a sleepy sky
             of smudge coal gray
His hand gently placed in mine,
a breath away from me
he sits,
           sailor of my fantasies, ardor of my beating heart...  

A sailboat retires for the night
                      on the dock over quiet waters
inside the cafe, music plays softly
                                    like sensual summer winds
He gifts me a smile,
                                       and stars appear,
                                sending light into mine !  

Velvet time,            layered moments
                 filled with enfolding bliss
                              We share one kiss  !    
Truth be told,
he is the soulmate I longed for all my life
I am lost in love's hammock,
                        rocked by his slow candor,
I feel loved, clothed in fleece...  

Jazzy nights filled with perfume
                               and a budding slow romance
The saxophone plays on ....  
we speaking softly to each other,  
                               through silent glances.
Before breath bore names,
the earth turned in the still without question.
Leaves trembled for no reason.
The black birds an swallow had no history.

Light fell on everything equally,
not as grace or punishment.
Time wore no crown yet.
Peace had not been tested.

Then came the man.

Not loud. Not cruel
just there, within the silence.
With eyes that broke surface,
and thoughts sharp as branches.

He touched the fruitless trees.
He stared until meaning formed.
He brought language to leaves.
He brought weight to wind.

The stillness knew it changed.

Now every calm hides tension.
Every breeze masks direction.
Rain lands like small verdicts.
Even stones avoid memory.

Birds scatter from shadow first.
Then ask if it follows.
A figure remains half-glimpsed
man-shaped, not entirely man.

The garden still pretends peace.
But roots twitch underneath boots.
Black soil absorbs too much.
Nothing forgets being watched.

He never speaks aloud now.
He walks behind tall hedges.
He waits where light bends.
Even the dusk leans away.

Something has been broken permanently.

When night arrives too fast,
the sky pretends not knowing.
Stars blink with unsure purpose.
The moon declines all witness.

Somewhere a man is watching.
Somewhere a thought is bleeding.
Knowledge stains without a wound.
And snow will come again

then melt before becoming real.

This is how it happens:
Every cycle loses something small.
The garden returns in pieces.
The birds return, not trusting.

No god opens the gate.
No fire lights the altar.
No hand blesses the silence.
Only the man remains—waiting.

His presence rewrites the rules.

He was not evil arriving.
He was potential remembering itself.
He was question before answer.
He was shadow before object.

Now even spring fears becoming.
Even summer waits for loss.
Each return grows more distant.
Each silence, less complete.

And the rain still falls
without anger, without warmth.
It has learned from man
how to arrive indifferent.
05 August 2025
Where the Knowing Walks
Copyright Malcolm Gladwin
.
asks the one in the $9 Craigslist chair,
legs crossed like a philosopher
mid-way through a YouTube binge
on dark matter
and dopamine fasting.


He thinks it’s profound.
It’s not.
It’s a shrug in a trench coat.
A crisis dressed up in code.
An old fear wearing digital cologne.

If this is a simulation—
what the **** are we simulating?

Heartbreak?
Minimum wage despair?
The number of times I check my phone
hoping it’s her?

Is it
a stress test for gods,
a beta for consciousness,
a joke?

Because if someone coded this—
they should be fired.
Or worshipped.
Or sued.

Where’s the patch notes,
the exit key,
the server room in the sky?

Where’s the moment it glitches
and someone finally says,
“Oops, our bad—
you weren’t meant to feel
all of that.”

You talk about the veil of illusion
but you still cry in parking lots.
You still ghost your therapist.
You still love people
who don’t text back.

You bleed,
you ache,
you spiral—
whether you’re made of atoms
or ******* pixels.

Your god wears headphones.
Your sacred text is a Stack Overflow thread.
Your heaven is a loading screen.
Your hell is just
Monday.

You pray in 1080p
to a silent DevOps deity
who hasn’t pushed an update
since the Bronze Age.

This isn’t philosophy.
It’s cosplay for cowards.
It’s a way to sound deep
without touching dirt.
Without risking faith.
Without changing anything.

Because if it’s a sim,
you don’t have to care.
If it’s a sim,
you don’t have to try.

You can just sit there,
scrolling.
Wondering if the fire
is ray-traced.

But here, the only questions that matter:
Does it hurt?
Do you love?
Can you lose?

Because if the answer is yes
you’re in it.
Whatever it is.
Simulation or not.
I have no objections to simulation theory.
The idea doesn’t offend me, challenge me, or keep me up at night.
But the way people use it—
to avoid meaning, to dodge responsibility, to slap a silicon face on old human questions—
that’s the rot I came to scrape out.

If the theory inspires you to live with more wonder, more purpose, more curiosity?
Good.
But if it’s just your newest excuse to sit in the dark
and call it depth—
I wrote this for you

—-

I don’t object to simulation theory.
I object to what it’s become.

I object to the way it’s wielded—
not as a lens,
but as a crutch.
Not to elevate wonder,
but to escape consequence.

A lazy man’s metaphysics,
an atheist’s afterlife without stakes,
a Redditor’s way of sounding like they’ve read Plato
without ever having to bleed like him.



I don’t mind if this is code.
But code doesn’t absolve you.

The simulation doesn’t change the taste of grief.
Doesn’t mute your mother’s voice.
Doesn’t make your failures less yours.

If you’re still broke,
still starving for affection,
still clinging to a memory that won’t call back—
then congratulations:
it’s real enough.

The texture of suffering is not theoretical.



And yet I see you,
parading this theory around
like a get-out-of-meaning-free card.

You want the permission to disengage.
You want the illusion of knowing
so you never have to act.

You wear this idea like armor,
but inside it, you’re hollow.
You never went to war.
You just cosplayed philosophy
and called it courage.



Let’s be honest—
most of you don’t care if it’s real or not.
You just don’t want to feel stupid
for wasting your life.

So you slap a label on it.
You say it’s all a sim.
As if that makes your apathy profound.



But if this really is a simulation,
the insult isn’t that it’s fake.
It’s that you wasted your one shot
to matter inside it.



I don’t care what this is made of.
I care what you are made of.

And if all you can do is point at the veil
and call it interesting—
you’re not asking a question.
You’re just running from an answer.
Nobody warned me
about the sound of skeleton laughter,
ribcages shaking like bells,
airless chuckles cracking the hot night,
slipping through the closet slats
into my skull.

It was fine with just Meg:
supermodel cheekbones,
a jaw that could steal my name.
We shared the closet,
my jackets brushing her collarbone.
"your flesh prison
can't wear that many anyway."

Then came her sister,
then another,
until nine of them
rattled teacups at 2 A.M.,
dripping through the floorboards.
My shirts fled to the hall.
I dream of thunder
that silences their bones.

They call it a ****** of crows -
but what waits in the dark,
rattling its teeth
for the last of you,
is a plague of skeletons.
Next page