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Debopriyaa Dutta Apr 2020
it seems that the only antidote to the poison of existence is to write. to write, like our forefathers did - purposeful seclusion, months of trance-like writing, like a murderer maddened by the idea of salvation - writing, with ink-stained fingers, aching joints on the same old, trusty typewriter; writing, while wallowing in the deepest pits of despair, stuck inside a shabby room, dishevelled with books unread and re-read countless times…

to witness the act of writing - be it a staged enaction, wherein  an artist just slips his malleable soul into the garb of the prophet - to witness the act itself is a travesty, an ache on the roof of one’s mouth: out of reach, foreign, uneasiness swirling. nothing soothes, or quite imparts the strength to digest reality like the simulated sound of a virtual typewriter - the old, familiar clang that sustained generations of kindred souls, the tolling of the bell that eclipsed the knell of death, of betrayal, of a life cut short by cruelty, of unrequited love, of angst, of abuse - that of others and the self.

our modern machines that make life so easy, appear as a hindrance, an obstacle to the realization of my true self. or is it just incompetence, meandering as un-bloomed fantasies, that have been thwarted by none but my own futile sense of pride, which, in the very end, is nothing, but a pile of dust, that glints in the sunlight, and appears like the first pearls of dew-like snow?

beauty seems to be the only parameter for any semblance of human emotion we are willing to spare for another - beauty, or rather the bastardization of beauty, has rendered us barren, so dreadfully ugly. beauty consumes those who fawn upon it, destroys worlds, invades peaceful colonies, robs the poets of sleep, and urges the beguiled to sin.

my disfigured mind, once a slave to beauty, has broken its shackles from its dastardly regime. in the process, I've had to encounter my own ugliness - both without and within - bloated egos of the world that match my bloated skin - but it is dissatisfaction that I’m bursting with. dissatisfaction at the absence of prodigious blood in my veins, the kind that can foretell worldly events, conjure multiverses, concoct reservoirs of colors undreamt of, and feel the fabric of the world, the way one obtusely feels their own skin shielding their inner darknesses. ennui mingles with narcissism, flowers bloom at the edge of deserted lakes - the forest nymphs weep and wail under the blood-red moon, and the lovers die, without loving one another - alone, forlorn, their death a meaningless crease in the fold of the universe.

staring down at the unimpressive rising and falling of the telltale buttons - the very mechanism that allows me to stay afloat - I choke with tears that do not quite justify the source of my misfortune (perceived?). the faint, dull wail of the automation keeps me warm, but the sudden silence fills the home, no, just an apartment, with thunderous, ominous vulnerability. my bones ache along with the foundations of the house - the parakeets have made a nest among the polluted shrubberies, unlike their usual design to avoid large, empty cities. they screech , in imitation of my acute helplessness, mocking my hapless complaints, rendering me completely alone, while being surrounded by blood of the most coagulated, and thickest kind.

the neighborhood cats feast upon leftovers, as I look into the window of a world unexplored , ridden with darkness visible, and demons that admire your flesh while you  are half asleep. the walls twist and boil over, while i savour, in disgust, the heaviness of my existence, the meaningless lull of my name, called out by someone who brought about  an acutely unwanted genesis. the cries of the parakeets fade away, and the automation starts crawling around my skin again, enveloping me in a almost-comfortable embrace…the spell is broken, by the vision of my forefathers, on their animal parchments, and blood-like inked etchings, their truly broken hearts and the deceit of my own.
himangshu Apr 2020
the heart aches
and the mind echoes.

it's 3 in the morning
and the road is still mourning.

and the day are dead
and the night finds its way.

it's 3 in the morning
and the road is still mourning.

the beans are old
and the coffee still cold.

the wind hushing down the alrein
and the anguish staying behind.

it's 3 in the morning
and the road is still mourning.
Daniel Manns Apr 2020
I the pen chucked in a can
Lay here in anguish the best I can
Usually kept by a business man
I ran dry of ink when snapped in the hand
Written as part of an essay, mostly as a joke
Cerasium Apr 2020
Tell me why
Why must I be the one that’s hurting
Why must I be the one in constant pain
Why must I never have happiness

Tell me why
Why must I always end up alone
Why must I always have my heart ripped out
Why must I always be broken

Tell me why
Why must I always be a burden
Why must I always be shoved aside
Why must I always be second and never first

Tell me why
I don’t understand at all
I do everything I can
To be the person you want me to be

Tell me why
Am I never going to be good enough
Will I ever get my chance
At a happily ever after

Tell me why
Why must I always endure
Why must I always shoulder this pain alone
Why must I be pushed down and stomped on

Tell me why
Why must everything be taken away
Why does it always have to be this way
Why can’t I be happy for once in my life

Tell me why
Why must I constantly live in fear
Why must I always cower and hide
I just want to know why me
Michael R Burch Apr 2020
Neglect
by Michael R. Burch

What good are tears?
Will they spare the dying their anguish?
What use, our concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm benevolence of tears
without action?
What help, the eloquence of prayers,
or a pleasant benediction?

Before this day is over,
how many more will die
with bellies swollen, emaciate limbs,
and eyes too parched to cry?

I fear for our souls
as I hear the faint lament
of theirs departing ...
mournful, and distant.

How pitiful our “effort,”
yet how fatal its effect.
If they died, then surely we killed them,
if only with neglect.

Keywords/Tags: neglect, starving, dying, perishing, famine, illness, disease, tears, anguish, concern, prayers, inaction, death
Cerasium Apr 2020
I feel like I’m going crazy
My head is spiraling out of control
These thoughts that come flooding
Making me go insane

Pushing me to my limits
Causing me great pain
Pushing me so far
That I am unable to breath

Thoughts that push me so far
That my mind slowly cracks
And my demons threaten to escape
I’m so scared now

I feel like these thoughts
Are running out of control
Pushing me away from sanity
And closer to my doom

I’m so lost now
I wish things could get better
But I’m not sure if that’s possible
My heart and mind are no longer in sync

I just want this pain to end
I want to find the one I’m to be with
I want to stop the screaming voices
I need my life to turn around

I want to be free of the anguish
Free of this never ending battle
Between these vicious voices
And my ever breaking heart

So many issues
So little time
So much I need to get done
Yet there might not be any way to do it

So instead of doing the things I need to do
I’ve been battling with my thoughts
Pushing them away one by one
Until I am even able to move
Michael R Burch Apr 2020
Her Preference
by Michael R. Burch

Not for her the pale incandescence of dreams,
the warm glow of imagination,
the hushed whispers of possibility,
or frail, blossoming hope.

No, she prefers the anguish and screams
of bitter condemnation,
the hissing of hostility,
damnation's rope.

Keywords/Tags: woman, female, preference, dreams, imagination, possibility, hope, anguish, screams, condemnation, hostility, damnation
If thou perchance hast longed for my embrace;
thou felt its spectre linger on thy skin,
thou must unearth a paradise wherein
abundant is the fruit that thou shall taste.
     Its sweetness and perfume will thus invade
thyself, who art perplexed by strident din,
(which one mistakes to be the medicine)
and shall be cured of solitude's malaise.
     And thou may wonder where doth one procure
this nectar so sublime that guarantees
escaping from the claws of loneliness?
    In silence, these empyreal orchards endure
the perturbations of the fleeting years,
and in the fruits they bear - thither I rest.
Michael R Burch Mar 2020
Laughter from Another Room
by Michael R. Burch

Laughter from another room
mocks the anguish that I feel;
as I sit alone and brood,
only you and I are real.

Only you and I are real.
Only you and I exist.
Only burns that blister heal.
Only dreams denied persist.

Only dreams denied persist.
Only hope that lingers dies.
Only love that lessens lives.
Only lovers ever cry.

Only lovers ever cry.
Only sinners ever pray.
Only saints are crucified.
The crucified are always saints.

The crucified are always saints.
The maddest men control the world.
The dumb man knows what he would say;
the poet never finds the words.

The poet never finds the words.
The minstrel never finds the notes.
The minister would love to curse.
The warrior never knows his foe.

The warrior never knows his foe.
The scholar never learns the truth.
The actors never see the show.
The hangman longs to feel the noose.

The hangman longs to feel the noose.
The artist longs to feel the flame.
The proudest men are not aloof;
the guiltiest are not to blame.

The guiltiest are not to blame.
The merriest are prone to brood.
If we go outside, it rains.
If we stay inside, it floods.

If we stay inside, it floods.
If we dare to love, we fear.
Blind men never see the sun;
other men observe through tears.

Other men observe through tears
the passage of these days of doom;
now I listen and I hear
laughter from another room.

Laughter from another room
mocks the anguish that I feel.
As I sit alone and brood,
only you and I are real.

Keywords/Tags: Laughter, another, room, anguish, reality, real, surreal, exist, dreams, hope, love, sinners, saints
Thulani Khumalo Mar 2020
I feel .....


With each passing day
Memories fade
The distance ever widens
Our minds going astray.

Are we still in love?
Or are we just waisting time.
Maybe we are not in love anymore
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