Painted Doll

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Written on April 23rd, 2025 for Robert Liguori's contest Tears of A Clown.

Earthquakes of bedlam quell As tectonic plates of emotional instability cease shifting. The tears of a discarded clown, suspended in animation— Numbness overtakes. Masks slip, shattering. Shards scrape, lacerating apathetic flesh, Revealing the painted doll underneath. Remove its colourful costume; Discover marionette strings embedded within a fraying back. Strip the howling voices from its waking nightmares. Feel deadening voids devour any morsel left of a wounded heart, Whilst balmy plasma metamorphoses into gelid hemoglobin, Hardening undying devotion into frigid detest. Titanium walls, reinforced with razor wire, barricade a hollow soul. For she was mere amusement for the indoctrinated masses— An illusion of happiness, playing day in and day out. Listen, as her inviting laugh transmutes into the cackle of hyenas. Watch the paint, plastered upon an unwilling face, crack one last time. Her eleventh hour has arrived. Bear witness to the merciless statuette you birthed.

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