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Valium and Dumdums

Between spacetime ripples
lurk dark energy waves,
emanating from the void
strange forces hold me slave
I mean! What type of creature/
flies a kite in thunderstorms
One searching for answers
carrying Cain’s multiple forms?

Left to roam earth’s surface,
blind man at the controls,
Free will: a human delusion,
designed for plugging holes
Filling up wishing wells
that possess no walls or gold,
If angels once flew here,
torn scapulas failed to hold

Inconsequence yields potential
for those without aim,
Living in guilty dreamland,
faking the conscience game
Fate’s not predestined,
broken paths bifurcate the way;
Either side are minefields,
where decimal points blow astray

Catatonic medication
seeps into my mind
Light speed slows down
bringing stability of a kind
I stare at open ripples,
stretching ever far apart,
reflecting chronic heartbeats,
flatlining from the start

Can barely make an effort
to clear my cluttered desk;
paperweights grow heavy,
the inkwell more grotesque
Time — time is endless
when prepping a final letter.
No sense quoting scriptures;
makes the flood outside seem wetter

To hell cast this world,
gamble away life’s coffers
Nothing left but truth
that only entropy offers
Chip the tip off a bullet,
Russian roulette my head
Peep inside the hole dum-dum,
you can always bank on red

Question marks hang over Cain;
mine has proven true
Decimal point erred again,
later resurfaced askew
Left to bear its blunder,
I send my kite into a storm tonight,
To hear the heavens rage, 
“That decimal point was always right”

By 
David Kavanagh

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Lin Lane Date: 8/6/2025 8:02:00 AM I'll comment without using AI. There is an absurdism to humanism that dehumanizes everything by placing a decimal in a certain place. The value of valium is to view all ideas, theoretical, whatever or wherever through hallucinated eyes or those of a dumdum, based on the placement of that decimal. A hair to the left leaves one left in the dark at the hands of fate or a smidge to the right and it's beneath a paperweight of faith. ahh, no sense quoting scripture if by it one does not abide. Login to Reply David Kavanagh Date: 8/6/2025 8:51:00 AM It’s possibly one of my trickiest to comment on Lin, so thanks very much for braving it out, as I’ve used duality and wordplay throughout, so just like that decimal point moving either way, one can read this and follow either path with different degrees of uncertainty, perhaps like this agnostic follows both and none, the Valium/dumdums are used metaphorically and in their true sense, love your interpretation, its honest and nonjudgmental, uses duality too, fate/faith the great existential question? Cheers David

Sotto Poet Date: 8/6/2025 4:59:00 AM This is an outstanding poem that explores existentialism and raises issues regarding fate, free agency, and the human condition, David. It considers the conflict between disorder and order as well as the pursuit of purpose in a meaningless cosmos. Along with references to historic figures like Cain and theoretical ideas like spacetime and dark energy, the poem also explores themes of hopelessness, the futility of human efforts, and the omnipresence of entropy. Login to Reply David Kavanagh Date: 8/6/2025 5:33:00 AM Thanks so much Lasaad, you totally get this one, indeed existentialism is at the core here, but I also wanted to bring in faith, spiritualism, science, cosmology, mental health, consciousness, and that ever present entropy, of course inside an infinite cosmos that decimal point will have no predetermined value, but in a finite one, I may have to accept it is perhaps right, I’m delighted with your fine appraisal, take care! Cheers David!