It is the day we are born
and its well-nigh dusk is as inevitable
as the mire and and fratricide that leads to it.

The spiritual lysis shall spread
like a bad fungus in a doomed forest,
but none of that matters today.
We don't remember being assigned a body
or dying countless times,
but we remember our first day at school;
we remember our first kiss,
our first job,
our first...

ICE CREAM!!!
Wait, do I have any money?
Wow, it's $5. I'm not rich yet.
Maybe one day, I'll be royalty.
Then, I'll buy all the ice cream I want!
Ow! Stop it! I'm telling! Doodyhead!
My mommy's gonna have a talk with your mommy!
Mrs. Paulsen's such a meany! She gives us too much
homework! My mommy and daddy say I should enjoy my
childhood while I'm still young, but I wanna be a
grownup! Besides, I'm gonna live forever! Just you
wait and see! They say, "youth is wasted on the
young" or something like that. They don't know what
they're talking about! I'm gonna prove 'em all wrong!
Just you wait & see! I'm gonna be a big shot, I am!
Just you wait 'n' see!

Don't look at me!
I can't go out looking like this!
No, I can't eat that pizza. It'll make me fat.
"How to tell if your boyfriend is cheating on you"
I can't go out looking like this!
No, I can't eat that cheesecake. It'll make me fat.
"Look hot!"
I'm 16, and I still don't have a girlfriend.
No, I can't eat that chocolate bar. It'll make me fat.
"What to watch and wear"
I have to get into college!
No, I can't eat that cookie. I'll get huge.
"Lose weight fast!"
I've ballooned up to 120lbs! Ack!
No, thanks. I'm not hungry...

I'm so hungry.
A bite of cheese, a slice of bread,
a handful of grapes, a sip of hemlock,
is that so much to ask?
I don't want to starve.
O, for some food, at least in the dreamtime.
It's been so long.
At last! A side of meat! It looks to be colored
a lush forest hue; it's all the same.
I'd eat rocks at this point!
Oh, no, where's the sky?

Come, boys! Let's eat
and celebrate a new year!
We fired 20,000 employees last year
and made billions because of it!
Come and join the feast!
We've worked so hard this year!
I must've spent days personally calling those
poor saps and telling them to fuck off! HA!
BITCH, GET ME ANOTHER BEER!

Where am I? I've lost my way?
My finances and hope have been exhausted.
I need a steady job. My life is spinning.
I've been working by commission
and nobody wants to buy from me.
Perhaps I'm just not cut out for this kind of thing.
Should I go back to working for my old boss?
No, I think not!
"SIR, I EXIST!"
"...and why should I care?"
please stop staring;
you've no right to!

I don't understand. I was doing so well.
It's not raining inside;
it's not even raining outside,
so why are you making me
wear this tight, white jacket?
And how am I supposed to scratch
or put anything in my pockets
if I'm always hugging myself like this?
I guess you just want me to feel loved...
thank you

a hundred million sorrow-stricken eyes
and tribulation-baptised cheeks
pollute the world. They shouldn't be here.
Unsolicited, deserving to be fed and taken care of.
Left alone, they have no choice but to confront
the world around and make the best of what they have,
and should they fall, they'd best regain themselves
for few'd be found to catch them, and
all that they really want is life.

I have to make lots of money
find a wife
have two kids
buy a red station wagon
get a dog
buy some insurance
live in the suburbs
and work long hours at my job.
It's the only life worth living.
Otherwise, I'm just a failure...
Praise McDonald's!
Ouch! What's that pain?

"What was his name?"
"I don't know. We couldn't find any ID on him."
"And what of DNA or dental information?"
"Couldn't find any of that either. Apparently, he's
from somewhere where those kind of records aren't taken."
"So, am I to believe that this guy has no identity?"
"He doesn't have one anymore."
"Amazing, and there are so many of them out there."
"Such a common name: 'irrelevant'..."

I'm gonna take on the world, I am!
I'm gonna be a big shot!
Just you wait and see!

Such a simple-minded waste, that guy.
A fun house mirror's view of a gorilla who
mistakenly believes that he's the alpha on
the block and spends his sunny days upon
the beach (but doesn't he have work?)
and poses there for women passing by (who laugh
internally) kissing his "amazing" muscles for
his mental mirrors (which if I may add, is fogged
and warped, but still). It's just a shame (or maybe
it's a blessing) that he's unaware of how so many view
him: just a simple twit who prides himself on image,
filling up his ego with self-righteous lies and taken
as a boyfriend only by the ones, the shallow, those
with blatant implants and such well-inflated egos of
their own and to console himself of hits from educated
ones, goes home and takes a shower, feeds the pitbull,
pumps some iron, watches football,
masturbates, and cries.

The lost, abraxic, amblyotic masses are all here.
Though they can see and walk, to where would they
be going? After all, though some secluded areas of
nature and society can offer hospitality,
there doesn't seem to be much left of that,
"And why should we be friendly
to each other if we haven't even met?"
Because we're family, that's why.

My penchant for concupiscence is my Achilles' heel,
yet have I known the urge to feel another within me?
I don't believe I have, and do we still collude
and misallude to days gone by? I don't know why
I still don't know. "A jolly show" came cried from
crowds who sang aloud so many times in days gone by.
Not anymore, though, for no longer do we get along.
and still, I want it deeply, badly, deeper still,
but, now, there's no one to fulfill my dev'lish need.
Not anymore.

I've fin'lly saved enough in order to retire!
The mire is past! O, peace at last!
O, Darling, we can finally afford to go abroad!
What's this, my dear? You say you have a pain?
Oh, no, what's this? I have a pain as well...

So close we are, now, to an all-too short release
that self-destructs and gives us precious little time to think
but, soon, shall grant us still a cleaven moment's peace
and, hence, we may ascend into a temporarily eternal blink.

04/07/2005

Author's Note: "Life" in the cyclical "Devil's Triangle" trilogy. This poem has no beginning and no end. Start reading wherever you want, stop whenever you're bored. The progression is pretty self-explanatory (i.e. "Life" --> "Death" --> "Reincarnation" --> "Life" --> "Death" --> "Reincarnation" --> etc. etc. etc. etc. ) Hope you enjoy.

Posted on 04/08/2005
Copyright © 2024 Kourosh Taheri-Golvarzi