Escape
There’s light trapped in teardrops as they’re raining from the sky.
The sorrow of thousands forms a colorless dye.
The world starts to glimmer; I start to grin.
The rain intensifies, and asks where I’ve been.
Black gets darker. White emits light.
Color is fading, announcing the night.
Man stays in, and starts whining.
But to me, this grey sky is just silver lining.
I travel to a place where fireflies parade.
And beg God to end this masquerade.
God is busy. Last week he was too.
I guess some entertainment will have to do.
More lost souls join me on my conquest.
They know a place where sin is best.
As we arrive at this godforsaken place
The guardian greets us, of course, without grace.
He points to the words written over the entrance,
Carefully carved, they form a sentence.
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”
That’s no problem for me; without hope, there is no fear.
So I hand over my hope while some step out of the queue.
No hope, no disappointment. At least, that’s my view.
We enter the moist cave; lights dance on walls.
A girl in the corner; eyes like waterfalls.
I tell her to go outside, to dance in the rain!
“It will wash away your fears, and eventually your pain.”
“No trace will be left behind; the rain cleanses violently.”
“The one thing it can’t touch though, is your memory.”
She opens her mouth; her words tell me she’s fine.
But I know better: I read between the lines.
She disappears suddenly, in a whirlpool of dancing machines.
I assess. Empty escapism is what this seems.
But Oh!
I used to have such a fetish on
Looking down upon.
But that was yesterday,
now I’m going into the fray!
I dive into a warm bath of music and drunken screams
Sweaty bodies, bouncing in harmony. Blissful reverie; living dreams
We found happiness, it seems.
It seems and seeps
Lives and weeps
Feeds and creeps
Moves but sleeps!
Aaahhh!
…
Time for a cigarette.
A nicotine kiss.
To put my mind to rest.
And my judgement to test.
I light it.
With a flame I kept in my pocket.
Reality topsy-turvy.
The smoke cascades upward.
Spacetime is crooked here.
Stop. Sleep. Whirlpool. Fear.
Rain. Waterfalls. Sweaty. Behind.
God. Souls. Lost…
FIND!
I’ve been longing for this nicotine kiss.
I breathe in deep, and pout my lips.
Then blow a smoke ring:
Incoming bliss.
For a moment that’s what I attain.
Pleasure is fleeting, but so is pain.
I observe my cigarette and realize that it will kill me one day.
But then I chuckle, and smoke it anyway.
Breathing in chemicals and exhaling love
We’re dream machines, matter is what is what we’re made of.
But we make things matter
Through our love.
Beauty burns on my retina. Objects leave traces of smoke.
Faces morph. Reality is a mirage, a cloak.
I see smoke, but where’s the fire?
Spasms have replaced the movements of desire.
And zombies the flesh gods who’ve built this empire.
perhaps I kept a little hope after all
Because that’s when I LASH OUT
“WHERE’S THE SPIRIT?!” I SHOUT
But my words get swept away
By the purposeful naivety of play.
Movement is life. And dance its perfection.
But only when you partake. Not when you’re the exception.
But, ah, I see...
The spirit is in bottles. Locked away behind bars.
Luring us in, to letting it fill our throats and hearts.
Alcohol, the most transient of cures,
Just sell a piece of your soul and it will all be yours.
Every feeling needs a feeler.
Every thought a thinker.
Every dance a dancer.
And every drink a drinker!
So drink your liquid confidence.
And open yourself to the harmony of existence.
Please go for a re-feel
Or I’ll burden you with endless insistence.
Art: Yuri Shwedoff