The Meaningless Conversation
by Edmund Siejka
I see my neighbor
He may see me
Or choose not to
We’ve had minor disagreements
In the past
But we always managed
To talk about family
High taxes
Movies
New cars
And faster gadgets
All things small and mundane
Now, he throws a hello my way
And I return with a nod.
Politics,
That short dirty word,
Divided us
Democrat
Republican
I stand my ground
He toes his line
Who is right
Who can be the loudest
Who works the hardest
And who doesn’t
Who waits
And who served.
Sometimes I have to be OK
With not being OK
And just live with the uneasy feeling
Of not agreeing
But it gets tiresome.
When I return home
My wife asks what did you two talk about?
I answer
Oh nothing, nothing at all.
Meaningless words
sometimes are heard
when spoken.
By the same token,
when written instead,
they are then read.
How can I be healed when my rivers are still tender
My heart is stuck in the same sentence
Unheard points screamed at the child inside me
What am I
When the trees stick out and come out of hiding
My thoughts are disconnected from the lifeless rivers bound down on me
This penny for thoughts is meaningless
No worth inside its curves
It meant so much when I paid attention to the quietness
But the wind snatches the good thoughts from hallways of complete darkness
Do I sound crazy
Dreaming of high skies and cloud nines
I cannot see up here
It's too bright and the lines are hard to look at as wrong
How can I be healed when the tree has nothing more to wave in the wind for a look
It is invisible aging and broken edges
How am I ever healed
I never ask for anything
that I don’t need,
I never beg,
I never shout,
I never pout.
I’m like a bird
with no wings
or no rout.
Giving money,
giving clothes,
giving everything that’s around you
and the closest to you,
but far nowhere near
the thought of giving support.
The money,
the nickels,
the dimes,
all of what can’t replace time
is the opposite of believing
in a single soul.
My mindset and motivation
doesn’t always run on money,
it runs on belief
and that is what keeps my engine going
during the hard times
of the storms and the clouds.
When I’m finally ready,
I will be shinny
more than the sun
has ever shinned
in front of the crowds.
I never do ask for what I need
because God already gave me
all of what I needed
deep down in my soul,
my heart,
and all of what’s around me—
the roof over my head
and a beautiful women
to motivate me,
to keep my engine going,
and to fight for what will be
forever ours in the future
and for what all we have left
on this earth.
You won’t see these words
in a shop window
printed across a smiling face,
or scribbled upon a wall -
they will probably never be daubed
on toilet stall doors either.
Deep and meaningless words
are generally reserved
for deep and meaningless poetry.
Works of literary art
that paint pretty word-pictures.
They are often well crafted,
but in the end
the reader is left hollow
wondering
why depth is so often presented
in such a shallow way.
‘I’ll be back in no time’
‘One moment, please’
‘It’ll just be a minute or two’
‘Hope to see you again soon’
‘Let’s be in touch’
‘We’ll have to do this more often’
‘The Doctor will see you shortly’
You won’t see these words
in any book worth reading
or carved upon memorial stone.
You probably won’t see them
daubed on toilet stall walls - not yet,
for they belong to the internet
where such deeply shallow idioms
are encountered on the surface
of a running river of eye-eating white.
These deeply meaningless musings
do not offer anything,
not advice or any point worth taking,
nor directions or recourse,
not real help for your spiritual growth
or for any healing purposes
whatsoever.
You may try rubbing your libido
with the sounds they make,
but being only pretty words,
they bring little relief.
If you read them
a certain poetry may tickle your mind
for a little while,
then they will fade into an alphabet soup,
something canned and bland
just like the stuff they gave you
to eat as a child
thinking it was good for you.
the meaningless
why is it that we who have no connection
with those who have the power of what
gets heard and published.
Today, we drove from Cascais to Lisbon
a drive that usually took half an hour
it took an hour more because of modern time
had upset the calculation
a modern society is measured by how many
cars are on the road at the same time
we who sit at home are in the news reminded
of this by those who call this progress
after this profound observation, the rest is
pointless history is eaten by false history
My days and nights merge strangely into one
The waning moon transforms to blazing sun,
and time no longer means a single thing
My sanity has flown on tempter's wing
I see the world in muted shades of grey
My words get tangled up each time I pray
My thoughts are lost inside an endless maze
I walk from room to room in silent daze
The meaning of existence murky still
No dogma and no creed the void can fill
There's only Christ; the rest is circumstance
That afterlife exists, I'll take the chance
I count the moments of each passing day,
and try to make it through them, come what may
They say its darkest just before the dawn
Before the sun appears, my hope is gone
This world, this place, this room is just a tomb
I lie enshrouded here in cloths of gloom
Oblivion will keep me company
Till resurrection day, don't look for me.
Eileen Manassian Ghali
I can be, but have never been, iniquitous.
Trailing off
in
Endless gaze,
A thousand-mile glare,
returned to
sender.
A hundred-thousand-kilowatt smile,
in repugnant
desire.
Frigid Rocky Road
and World-Class Chocolate
companions.
Held,
suspended
abreast,
One-hundred-and-nine-degree
heat.
This rotten,
vicious,
and offensive prohibition
persists.
One must die
for the next to exist.
Why disturb a functioning country? Why force untried
Socialogical patterns.? Why dis-place positive gender
Roles? Why encourage seperate (communitys?) Then
Advise coming together? (Why?) Why would anyone do
Such iniquity.? Why encourage more people into higher
Education? When there was not enough opportunity?
Thereby leaving manual workplaces needing more applicants? Why cause less birth rates? Encourage even.?
Why alter course? in a (false medical emergency) after
Taking world class advice to go through! to gain bodily
Immunity.?? Why do such evils? Why encourage women
To compete with men? Espicially In hard sports' Why.?
Can we let our bodies touch
Breath in unison
Transcendental moments will only take us so far, away from all the beauty and its meaningless glory
If I let you look, would you promise to only see me?
If I let you hear, will you promise to come listen?
If I let you in, would you still leave me?
I’m not afraid of death, only of the loneliness
Tie your arteries with mine and let the blood pour out as it floods every town and city
Listen to my heartbeat before my body decomposes and you, too, will leave me
In shadow's tomb—
A dim, aimless flicker...
Void's grip, timeless
claims all.
Fantomsound: life's song is just a cognition in the null.
Rain, pain—
Stardust, dust, flesh
patternless on oblivions loom.
Decay's dance a molderwaltz,
Fingers grasp at phantoms
no hope
Peace in the abyss's open arms. Not…
Unveiled—darkness, despair's shroud
enigma's veil.
Hearts, no soul, toll; unpaid.
Dreams surrendered.
Woe's tale on wastesphere's icy breath.
Void's sigh,
Sun bleeds on the endless fight.
Souls adrift, yearning
churning, burning
Accept, the void's silent
starlit song mute.
From nothing, is nothing, in nothing /
to nothing, for nothing
Fade to black...
....Floccinaucinihilipilification is the act of describing
something as unimportant, or as being worthless.....
Floccinaucinihilipilification....how to pronounce?
flow can awe...see in hill of files of caution, and....
speech can awe what's seen in piles of caution, so...
just say lots about nothing important, and may....
worthlessness be thee point of the conversation....
stans sand
Pride which is Meaningless.
It is when some folks
Who only speak
Their mother tongues
Have courage to laugh at
those who can speak and write
fifteen languages.
August 15/2023
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