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Ian
Ian Barkley
My name's Ian. I write prose about the future and poetry about the present.
Bread
Everything can mean anything
And nothing can be something too
everything has been said before
you never have to think again
Premade, prepackaged
pull request
10 random words:
- Butterscotch
- Cloister
- Discomfit
- Exuberant
- Fervent
- Glisten
- Indigo
- Jovial
- Kaleidoscope
- Leviathan
- Mongoose
You
Effortlessly bleak
nothing happens in a vacuum
No one is entirely alone
Not all who are lost are weak
Everyone gets a little help.
Misery doesn’t love company
It demands it.
We
Maybe it is just me
a lifestyle that robbed me of language
under attack by enemies,
real and imagined
cheated by phantoms
whining and gnashing
Maybe it’s just me
and the alienation isn’t real
when you can’t see it.
Me
all the oxygen leaves the room
snuffs the flame
lose enough times, no longer play
shallow breaths
chest tightens
Serenity
I know how it gets worse
when the only way out is down
I know when it gets worse
sometime around now
I know why it gets worse
that’s the worst part
Wisp
Ghosts are everywhere if you know where to look
and you’re willing to die
just enough to get their attention
tuning your ears to the extremely low frequencies
the government uses for weapons
ELF – machine elves – basic stuff
It’s where they live
Circus
shoulda done read more books
every blink is a change-
attention shift
attention drift
like living in a casino, except there’s no money
anywhere
tapp an app
⊗
Watch out!
There’s bears and shit out there
if you wander too far
Been here before
there’s even footprints-
probably mine
all the landmarks are the same
compass is no good
the poles have shifted.
⊕
Where am I?
doesn’t matter where we’ve been
the silence drove me crazy long ago
found the songs, had a cry
still lost.
I had a way with words
but someone lost the map
somewhere up the road
Guess we don’t know which way to go?