Friday, November 11, 2016

Village Politics

That face, those eyes, those lips pursed with that grimace reminding me what I am. A little worm, a useless little creature, so far beneath that gaze. I struggle to breathe when I hear that voice, or those footsteps in the distance, my heart beats out of my chest, and it flops on the floor, but I can't chase after it, not when the oven's fires are burning hot.

So I'm just a little worm, nestled in the mud, dreaming of cotton and chrome and just a little warmth. Hollow words, and hollow meanings, nothing much is said, yet all they do is talk. The skin of my hands still bears that scent, like onions, or servitude, or lack of focus, they all kind of smell the same.

Slash, slash, slash, breathe deep, try to get a grip, and slash some more. Plastic bags or my own soul, what am I cutting? I can't remember anymore. My back is bent, with exhaustion or dread, who knows? There's that voice again. Damned if I do, and damned if I don't. What a world, what a lovely little grey dead thing. I used to have color once, have a rhythm in my step, a flash in my smile. Oh well, all is in devotion to that thing that doesn't exist, in denomination; manifold.

That girl, that damn wonderful girl, whispering, whispering in my ear. I can't take it, no more. I can't be this thing she wants me to be. A happy, virile, wonderful, colorful thing. I'm all gone out, drained, a pen with no ink, no words to say, no pictures to draw, no cartoons to sketch, just scratching, poking holes in the paper, a big empty nothing.

They take, and take, and take, and ask more than I ever had to give. What life was in me is gone, taken by a corporate god, a demon in a pinstripe. My balance is broken, spiraling out of control, the universe isn't a rainbow, it's acid rain, eating the paint off the limo, the sports car, the Mercedes, the paint job of our dreams, rusted away, the bare bones reality of paying the gas bill.

When I feel the fire rise in me, the old music pounding away in my soul, then I remember the task at hand, the stains, the fucking mountain of dirty plates, and the fires are extinguished, washed away like half-assed graffiti. I can't even cry anymore. Can't cry out, no strength is left in me, no fight, nothing, a hollow man left to walk back and forth at the whims of the paying public.

Maybe one day I'll die, and then I'll be where sea meets shore, and the sun goes up and down, and all is word and thought, then maybe then, I can have peace, then maybe the, I can do my work, make my worlds, and shout until my lungs burn, and then maybe then, I can smile again.