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An endless stream of grey
Meandering like smoke past my door
Swallowed by the gaping maw
Constantly this ravenous creature demands more bodies to devour
As un-protesting they all go to their doom

Is that a sign of struggle?
A momentary fluttering of rebellion in their eyes
The futility of their journey
Rebellion quashed, the creature roars
Stuffed with life, it staggers on its way to gardens unknown
And in its wake
An endless stream of grey
jimmy tee Dec 2013
2032

that thing strapped to my leg
is an artificial heart
my digital liver fits nicely
in what looks like a backpack
peristaltic action for digestion:
a mini quantum dot siphon
kidneys are actually implanted
nano graphene filters in the blood

I am a bionic man because I can afford it
but I am losing my brain
there is no replacement
despite computing prowess that worries the gods
there is no substitute for a soul
the Tao of this universe is irony only
and now the immortality of my body
horrifies my every thought
as the fluids pump
and the heart moves
but cannot beat
Into the tunnel, not of love,
not of ghosts, but MRI,
totally still you must lie said he with a squint, 
with needles for this and for that
to control the peristaltic movements,
one lies to be heated by fire from beneath, 
in a terrible sheath of metal
to weigh down your middle, 
then it begins the booms and the blows

your breathing you suppose is as normal, 
sweet music plays in your ear phones, 
(and strangely enough in the key of the booms)
as you slowly get stiller and stiller, 
and feel you will never recover, 
your mind wanders here and there
out of the funnel to friends,
but you're there all alone so alone,
and wish to go home.

a sudden boom hammer like thunder, 
you feel you're down under the sod
in your cylindrical coffin from God.

all at once you're dragged out, after the hour,
yes we've got all we want says the man,
get up if you can, but you can't, 
as all is stood still, even will won't work,
and you walk on your way heavy footed and dizzy,
befuddled and muddled, but glad that its over,
its no dance in clover, oh no, 
but just something one has to go through.
The MRI tunnel is inspiring with it rhythmical boom.
tonylongo Mar 2020
The hurricane winds are a bore
When they’ve been pushing you around
For two-thirds of a century
There’s nothing surprising about what torsion can do:
I know, I know,
It’s real but it’s all in your head, both at once,
Your collarbone is at 227 degrees toward Polaris
And meanwhile your left hip is rotating in a
Hyperskewed dimension only plottable with
Imaginary numbers, which is a problem
For peristaltic functions dependent on
Newtonian mechanics – sigh, shiver, burp,
Keep your awareness don’t fall over
BORING.
You’ve been on orange alert since Ike.

Let’s run down the repertoire of available distractions.
Jokiness? Sometimes worked in small
Person-to-person settings (you see the current problem)
But amazingly hard to pull off in text;
Mentally mugging the innocent online?
Leaves a bad taste.
Obliterating lust? Seems to have annihilated itself
Except in pain-in-the-*** dreams, the actually-asleep kind.
Guitar, or similar toys? Only fun as long as you keep finding
Novelty – which turns into, you know, work.

Drowning your mind in other people’s stuff?
This is the scary part.
Sometimes, still, for a little while; but never for long;
Not the freshest, not the most age-old time-tested brilliance;
Metaphors fall apart – the plot devices cannot hold -
You blink twice and the wind’s whipped the page out of your grip
And twisted your neck down up inside your ******* again.

So blowblowblowblowblow, babybrainballoons,
And Crack Your Cheeks,
Coz the only shred of hope is that if we all keep
Caterwauling our pissant poetic brains out at maximum vocal volume
Preamped and reverbed by global satellite systems to some
Unpredictable transhuman force it might eventually
OutShout the drone of Earth’s idiotic entropy
Kuz krist I’m bored of standing up in the wind
Ike was Dwight D. Eisenhower. My earliest memory related to print is asking Mom about a Daily News headline saying something about "IKE"
Jane Aug 2021
Melancholy is muted, savoury today and soft textured, silky soup and no mastication necessary for tired throat
A strip of tension my forehead recognises as the sand remembers footprints awhile
Tracing whispers to fears and uncertainties does little to loosen the screws but rationale is oil slick and lemon rind, acidic onion and ginger heat
Delicious - when you're in the mood
And my stomach is lead heavy with poisoned morsels I feed myself to dampen the hunger pangs, no nutrition just teeth chasing satisfaction, sensory reaction to crunch and chew and swallow
My sinking does not undulate with peristaltic push and pull of muscle, it's quicksand drowning on dry land and suffocation burial in unmarked ground
Yet unabrasive
White bread islands with butter pooling atop red warning, red warming, red hot, ready or not
I think I'll go to bed hungry

— The End —