Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Josh Jul 2017
They gather, to hear musicians play
A few small groups litter the grass
They are like the music
Or the summer sun
They are fleeting
They exist, but for a time
They may even live
But they too shall pass
Into nothing
Should I envy them?
Their joy, however fleeting
Perhaps not
And yet, I do
Josh Jul 2017
Mostly, I am numb
Sometimes I feel
I feel fire, tearing my chest
Or rivers, cascading down my cheeks
I feel that I am, a ghost already
I feel insubstantial
As I breathe, because I must
I pretend, fake, living
In fact I simply move
I follow the actions
The processes, to survive
I, am numb
Sometimes, I feel
Josh Jul 2017
And so it begins
A change of scene
The doctor offered pills
But suggested therapy
Thinking, as I hope
I can become a better me
I have paperwork
And advice, for now
I'll get a counsellor
Spill my guts out
Cut out the bad parts
Mental surgery
If that doesn't work
Then I will take the pills
To keep me functioning
I will exist, until I start to live
Josh Jul 2017
Here I sit, this bus stop
This inbetween
A liminal space
Possibility, all that we are
Can be described in these places
Uncertain, possible
The promise of going
But no set destination
I hear two strangers
Talking about relationships
The desire to be with someone
Clutching, scrabbling for something
Anything, this is human
Josh Jul 2017
The jukebox plays an oldie
Everyone is drunk
But they all know the words
If they don't know his name
This, is fame
A memory, one day lost
Think of Alexandria
Now nothing
Once so great
Or deities lost to history
That is the path we all take
We are born, we exist
Maybe even live
We die, and are forgotten
There is no hereafter
No pearly gates
No endless fire
Birth, existence
Then we expire
This is humanity
Josh Jul 2017
Bare, the green
Empty of people
Of life
But for one lone wanderer
People in the park
Fifty feet away
Do they wonder
Or believe they know
Why they're here
Or where they go
In the distance, I can see
A church steeple
That fountain of lies
They claim to know
The how's and why's
Of our existence
Of our strife
It is but an ******
To dull existential ache
To those who are not fooled
It has a bitter taste
Still, the grass is vacant
My hands, they shake
I used to stand up in high places
And fancy, I could see
The whole world, see everything
Stretching out in front of me
I am older now, and not so misty eyed
I see but a placeholder
A thing waiting to die
The tiny ant does not worry
Or count it's passing days
I think that our intelligence, has harmed us in some ways
We know too little, think too much
Try to mark the nothingness
To scratch, to scar
The endless void
We claw, and clutch
At meaning, purpose
These frail, ghostly things
Spectre of a ghost
Shadow of a shadow
These things, they die with us
There is no Eldorado
This is all I know
Josh Jul 2017
I exist, and dream of living
Each morning, when I wake
I throw wide the curtains, hoping
That today is the day
But it is not
And so I rise
I put on my clothes
I prance, and preen, and peacock
But i am not a living thing.
Every day, I exist
At night, I dream of living
Can I not live, just for a moment?
But reality is not forgiving
So the play, continues
I hope, a secret, forlorn hope
That I may, one day
Change this verse
But hope is just another dream
Another bubble to be burst
So I will keep existing.
First submission. Most of my work will be along the lines of existential nihilism.
Nico Reznick Jul 2017
Brew tragedy tea
and drink without
tasting it.
Keep checking the meaning of
'forever',
in case it's been redefined
in less absolute terms.
Shiver through the heatwave and watch
the colour bleed out of the summer.
Dig a hole that won't be deep enough.
Shower off the crazy sweat and grave dirt
and pretend like maybe
you'll do the dishes.
Rupture your inner workings
as you scream at the universe
for ******* up so badly.
Lapse into the cold, sterile embrace
of catatonia, grateful
to feel nothing for a while.
Cry so long and so hard you forget
why you're crying,
then remember and cry
longer and harder.
Try brokering a deal with fate's
Appeals Department: offer
your organs, your eyesight,
however many years off your life,
to get him back.
Search for meaning and find none.
Rage against the perversity of it all.
Howl that death shouldn't feel derivative.
Remind yourself that this
isn't just a sick joke.
Hate Elisabeth Kübler-Ross for being right
and yourself for being so generically human.
Realise how little
knowing helps.
Reacquaint yourself with anhedonia.
Try not to hate the blue sky
or the birds who have returned
to sing in his back garden.
Just lost a really good cat friend.  Grieving pretty ******* hard, if utterly unoriginally.
Anonymess Jun 2017
This role I'm playing is exhausting
Of watching you watching me
Of smiling, of laughing
Of not cracking when you blink

This being human is tiring,
Its not as great as they said it would be
The acting, the pretending,
The standing strong when you're weak

This staying alive thing is excruciating
Of being in pain and wishing to be free
Of trying, of crying
Of not being able to be me
Next page