Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
J J Feb 28
We will go together, you and I, into cities
strange,splendid and waiting to be taken by us so loving and so cruel

Passerbys can give us funny looks
and call us queer if they so please

Arms knotted at the elbow, so

Anyone else's thoughts will mean very little

We will trace our tiny feet along arcade flooring
adjacent to monumental parish churches

That scare you as if you were some son of Satan
And in that case I can role play as a son of Sam. All
we need now is a hound to pin our blames on.

Since coming of age
I've dwelled on Augustinian confessions
As forms of atonement

And you don't care
To hear of my sins that are not sins in your eyes,
That's why I've liked you for so long

Yet you strive to change me into something I am not
And that's why we never last and won't last. Still, the sky hangs

dimly sunny overhead and though miles divide us the sky's predictable mutation
impells planning like scripture does those who care to
worship and spread and undo and renounce

And I cannot wait to wander lost again,
this time with neither of us able to guide the other

And if nothing else, I am glad I could make it so you don't fear being lost as much, you're still

A nascent in my eyes although I first saw you as a father figure.
Isn't it funny how much you can watch someone change before

your very eyes? I hope you are dressed
and wearing your most robust boots,
seeing that those strange cities may call for us any moment now.
And I said nonono O ladyday!

(Now I love you like a brother)
Dave Robertson Aug 2020
I play video games on easy.

Yeah,
I know how some folk will see me,
but now, here’s the thing:

I don’t thrive on challenge.
I grow from knowing
what I’m capable of knowing
and showing all of that
polished up

I get that people see mountains
and climb because they’re there
but me knowing there’s a cafe at the top
with flapjack, tea and Kendal mint cake
seems to make it fair

Better still if a tarmac track
or funicular railway
can get me halfway or more,
I’m all over that,
you just watch me summit

To return to the original sort of analogy:
if I can beat the enigmatic end of level boss
who tosses a second or third energy bar
in the mix
by spamming the same overpowered move over and over,
I’m doing it,
end of

When I stand in the ashes of the beast
whatever it might be
and take loot or XP
that might be not quite as good as on normal or hard
I’m good
I still feel the buzz of winning

If I have to grind repeatedly
and learn intricate enemy routines to evade or parry
and die
and die
and die

It’s not for me.

It could be because I cut my gaming teeth in eighties arcades
where I judged how good a game was
by how far 10p could take me
at a time when 10ps were limited

A forgiving difficulty level was a boon
(Yeah, I’m looking at you Mad Dog McCree
50 flipping *** a go and dead in 30 seconds!)

Anyway...

A little friction in life is fine,
no drama without conflict and all that,
but given the option
to up up, down down
left right, left right
B A Start
my heart will always take it

— The End —