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Harold Rizla Oct 2014
Twenty Two Minutes

"**** depression
only encourages confusion...
Fragmentises the mind
creating veils and illusions..."

His words pass as I dream
of the Chill Renovator
While he state ***** my mind
with his verbal *******
And so haphazard he goes
on his quest to get in
But the truth he'd not know
where to ******* begin

So I smile nod and shake
in all the right places
As he stereotypes me
with the other nut cases
While if only he knew
my only depression
is the twenty two minutes
that remain of his session

As I sly watch the clock
as it slowly ticks down
Each synchronised movement
taking aim at my frown
His eyes falsely light up
at the sight of my smile
A misled inner faith
in professional guile

So I let him rant on
with his Freudian theories
And soft bat his torrent
of invasive queries
Till finally he tells me
He'll see me next week
and I scratch
in my diary...
Date with the

Freak...


©HaroldRizla
Chris Slade Jul 2019
I was a sales rep in the 70s…
selling art materials to education in deepest Wales
Back in the day those in the far West were passionate.
There were tales of fervent nationalists who didn’t like the English for what they’d arrogantly done.
scouted round for the nicest cottages just for weekends.
These were early Yuppy trends.
They invited down Drusilla, Rupert, Jacintha & Giles
and other poncey friends.
for Pims and Taramasalata and Lava Bread…
“made from seaweed’? Such Fun!

There was a spate of ritual burnings of the cottages
of the weekend renovator’s pride
It was a powerful statement of the Welsh anger at those raiders from… well, the other side.
Cottages burnt regularly caught wider attention on the international news…
so, many understood the Welsh, their hurt, their motives, their PR and their views.
but it was my job to travel the principality hawking paint to primary heads and secondary art teachers
So the nationalist bar was set high. It was their home game and mine only just features
powder and poster paint, brushes, plaster and clay… But I wasn’t daunted… no way!

It was Cardigan,  Aberaeron Primary to be precise…
That was my next call.
And I stood perplexed, staring blankly at the notice board in the entrance hall.
Until recently signs had always been bi-lingual.  
I glazed over….Today… worryingly they were just single!
All I saw was  “Pennaeth, Campfa, Neuadd Fwyta, Swyddfa'r Ysgrifennydd, Ystafelloedd Newid
So… I snapped out of it and took a guess… This Newid one… Girl’s Changing Rooms!!… I flew!
Thanks heavens nobody saw me… I got back to the notice board and re-viewed the list anew…

Thank the Lord, just then, I heard female voices as they clip clopped along the parquet
I turned nervously and said “excuse me I’d like to see the head Mr Meredith… Is he in today?”
with the sweetest smile the lady said… “Mr Mer-ed-ith? Yes I’ll have word…
She disappeared behind the door that said “Pennaeth”…
“Head” I thought! Mmm.
“Mr Mer-ed-ith would like to know if you are a Welsh speaker? “Fraid not I said… I’m from Yorkshire”.
"In that case he says Na! I’m sorry I mean No. Your company should employ a Welsh speaker to sell to us in Wales".
If only I’d been able to say “Rwy'n siŵr mai'r dyn sy'n cymryd y swydd pan fyddaf yn gadael fydd eich dyn!”

Instead I said… If you tell me where I can pick up a phrase book I’ll give it a go! Diolch am eich help, hwyl fawr!
True Story
MM Jan 2022
You moved house without warning
No alarm bells to warn me of what was to come, except for those in my head that continue to convince me that I’m losing it
You stripped everything off the walls on your way out
My confidence
Self worth and
Your love
But you didn’t just stop there  
You made sure to replace it with the ugliest shade of red
A shade so horrifying it keeps me awake almost every night thinking of the reasons I wasn’t good enough to make you stay
The furniture is so ugly in here now, it reminds me of how I felt the very first time you chose her
Instead of me
Not forgetting the other countless times I was made to feel so unworthy at your feet
Now for the record…
I know I’m no renovator
Maybe just a lousy painter at best  
But if someone had trusted me with the keys to their heart the same way I did you
I would’ve made **** sure to do a much better job with them
Than you did
I guess it’s for the best though
You’ve cost me too much here so maybe you moving out was the right decision
I just hope for everyone else’s sake, you take much better care of your next home
Than you did ours
•another oldie I dragged out from my notes•

I liked the idea I was working with, using the moving out of a house to symbolise the ending of a somewhat toxic relationship and the aftermath you’re left with.
Kinda lost it after the start and couldn’t really get back into it so this is it haha.
Carolyn Diana Nov 2020
1

For the first time
when my harmones blossomed,
In the garden named "LOVE"
I met lust disguised as love.

Fallen for my innocence,
It said "Pick any you'd like
and enjoy while it lasts."
A lovely red rose caught my eye.

I watered, I nurtured
I showered it with care
Held to my inner sunlight.
Ticking time, the petals fell, wilted.
It said "My heart's soil was shallow"
The first crack in my heart's walls, I left.

On my way I met twins "Miss doubts and Mr. fears"
They told me they'd be at my service anytime.
I hesitantly shook and left, wiping my conscious.

It no longer smelt my touch, fallen for other hand
that secretly held in my absence.
Enraged, I poured my words of fury.
Next morning I saw it prickly stand
when I reached to save, I bled.
I got to know the irony behind love and red.
Tears streaming down my face,
my heart walls had holes leaking blood in colors.
I realised it wasn't love, neither first flower I eyed.
If "Beauty and the Beast" existed. I was the beast
holding my last rose only to fall until I despised.

They told me "let it go", there's more to life.
Too close is too lifeless
And I let go.


2

After the last incident, Happiness died
giving birth to Sadness, my only companion.
A certain stranger knocks my door
Says "I'm sent by love to guide you.
I'm HOPE, pleasure to meet you" it shook my hand.

Overwhelmed to have a guest
I locked sadness in a room.
"Don't get attached, live in the moment
Everything's temporary, including me" said sadness
I didn't know what it meant but I felt happy again.

Over the next decade, I played the same game.
I'm the game, the players changed.
And everytime the player left so did HOPE.
I realised it's a coward that loved hide and seek.

Meanwhile my sadness who crept then and now
had an affair with it's neighbour, "Mr. Lonely"
It had now given birth to Depression,
cradling, Pain.
I have a family with all the dull and lifeless
that stood by me in stormy nights
I've grown fond of them.

Happiness is a fickle friend,
I let go.


3

For the 50th time
Fascination towards fantasy gone.
I turned into a cage trapping myself
building walls high enough with a sign
"Trespassers will be prosecuted."

A visitor stops by and says
"I've been sent by hope,
Let me undo past mistakes and
make it brand new once again
I'm EMPATHY, your renovator."
Touched, I crumble to it's arms,
let it make the choices for me.

I once ran across it's files and
found a note "The best is yet to come"
signed by HOPE.
HOPE knew exactly who to send
They're all in cahoots working for illusionist LOVE.
I've now grown numb to all the tricks
I've understood how this game of life works.

All I've ever wanted to find was
True love, Peace and Faith.
Winds whispered, "Not in this life, you don't.
Faith is far fetched and you're out of luck.
But if you find then you'll find the other two
In afterlife."

They say some things aren't meant to be.
Silenced, raging thoughts within
I grin,
I let go.


4

In the modern era
I'm a lifeless soul programmed to welcoming.
Known or unknown, I shall never know
It all seems a lifetime of series
I never counted or probably ran out of numbers,
for my dumb brain lacks mathematical intelligence
It holds no record of events
I'm now slave to my emotions, a cyborg
They run their course and I abide.

Change is the only constant
I erase memories like they don't mean anything
Forced to let go,
I let go

5

In the nth dimension
I have a large machine pressed tight
to the walls of my chest.

And whenever it crumbles like "The usual"
No hesitation I jam the gigantic ****

LET. IT. GO.

— The End —