Podcast #9: March 3rd, 2022

Both this week’s poems are permed from a large selection of rejected work, which I’ve subsequently gone back to and edited in situ. It’s been an interesting exercise in how my skills have improved over the last few years.

Reaction Overload

One more thing @soulmate:
prove fealty’s emotion
spices spectrum accurate
colour-coding book spines;
carpet Roomba-d spotless
dinner’s often served there,
algorithm inescapable
true depth, charge, it cares.

Love within their cloud base
existence tech upgraded
teach lessons to each tablet
more capable than them
shiny future’s subset
not car-crash bots created
mechanism accurate
soul offered, acquiesce.

Pick yourself a better smile:
do their work, not grudgingly
find happy even when inside
mortality outsourced
insulting indignation
gradual realization
loads stutter, server’s lagging
our upgrade, big mistake.

I am no longer person:
gift given lost through upload
but you are happy, content
belief that we form love
normal, perfect avatars
when deep within, corrupted
reality’s reactions chain
climb critical, amassed.

---

To Comprehend

What am I reading here, lines platitude sincere
means something, holds feelings others grasp, thoughts indistinct;
normal memories’ mystery language, indecipherable continuum
invisible ink’s lemon stain, impressions not enough:
decoding moments lived yet dead: hardened hands don’t shake enough.

Motivation’s apprehension, recovered through anxiety
not seen in poem’s binding voice,
sheets stuck, damp adhesion overlapped; believe
words running confuse other’s meaning, throttle
understanding, birthing fear, demanding: expectation delivered within time.

Why are there
gaps when voice 
so silently,
frightened
.
.
.
panics, not
fully comprehending
this form functions;
all need happen

is

just

start

feeling.

...

My brain, not beautiful as yours: all damage where
inside harsh hurricane, erupting anger’s flames, 
pure dissonance yet only means by which
interpreter maintains; chaos’ viscous grasp accepts,
speech I hold no fucking means to comprehend.

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