ignorance

we need to sever ourselves
from this soup
this
thick
sludge
it's sucking and slurping
and sucking
and slurping
and if we wait
if we wait
it will grow teeth
and chew us
all
up

the smell, the stink
of this sickening stew
makes me ache
in my gut
makes me heave when
I breathe in
it's vapid chatter
and I can feel it
I feel the stain
of this
vile mindlessness
eating through my
dwindling
time
left.

it's been
sneaking in,
hijacking sources
we once trusted.
moving in slowly.
slithering through
the cracks
squeezing into
gaps.
mimic and pretend.
it lies
convincingly.

we're broken early,
some of us.
weakened with
religion and media.
some of us dive in
willingly.
taught to like it.
taught to teach it.

the rest of us
it's forced
like a rape
like a tidal wave
knocking us down
and pulling us under
making us
swallow
mouthfuls of
bullshit.

but there's this
safe house
between my ears
where i'm sheltered from
it's grasp,
I've got plenty here
to fight with,
I've got books
and skepticism
and reason
as guards.

worry

it was maybe a day
of silence,
background chatter,
the drone of sameness.
but this is the same as
silence,
really.

so I would busy myself,
quietly
turning things over,
attempting to fill
a void
with thought,
unfocused as it was.

it began to
gnaw at me,
and soon I was certain
that a sadness was lurking,
something horrible.

even though,
hey,
sure,
it was only a day.
one day of nothing.
maybe not even
that.

but silence
amid the
cacophony,
it's like the still
before the climax
of a tragedy.

after a period of mourning,
it washed back in,
a storm of euphoria
filling my pores with
relief,
flooding my senses.

one can't always
appreciate
the importance of rain
until
drought.