Pareidolia

I once took a trip into psychosis,
A familiar locale,
Down the winding gaudy pathways,
Down the rabbithole,
Following Alice,
Or was it a shadow on a tree?

I see things,
Dancing on my periphery,
Unsure if they exist or not,
Abstract shapes in the dark,
Shadow people and the man in the moon,
Friends and foes unclear,

I hear things,
Or do my ears deceive me?
Syllables in the breeze,
EVPs and messages in the music of the night,
Voices muttering in unknown tongues,
Joshing in the witching hour,

I return to my den,
Perspective awry,
I find myself glancing in the mirror,
My own face grimaces back,
The contours are different though,
A sense of pareidolia?

As I stare blankly,
The reflection grins darkly in return.

Torment

I found a bunker in my dreams,
I could only enter the dank room,
The grey walls greet me with indifference,
My only companions,
They mock me in silence,
Emotions bubble up within like a geyser,

Red,

I scream out,
Unleashing a beast of decibels,
A dragon of mania,
Wreathing the land in a roar of torment,
My vocal chords obey in terror,
I tear at my own cheeks in fury,

Blue,

Spent,
I long to collapse,
Sweat descends like tears,
Pulse of agonised woe,
The walls ignore me no longer,
They tremble at my rageful becoming.

Witch Totem

I once dreamed of a forest,
A place I was drawn to wander,
There was a sweet perfume of witchcraft,
A fantasy,
Or a nightmare,
It was hard to tell,

Ghostly groves,
And dead branches charred by mana,
A godless arboretum,
A land bereft of deities,
Even the sun seemed timid,
Overcast through the gnarled boughs,

A witch resides here,
Or so i’ve heard,
And I believe the tales,
I spy her totems,
Omens to intruders like me,
Mandrake and hemlock,

Bones of vermin,
And dead sticks,
Affixed with aged catgut,
Into a crooked symbol,
Icons of her sorcery,
They hum with ancient words,

The sun flees,
The trees grow silent,
The atmosphere closes ranks,
I felt a cold hand on my shoulder,
And gelid breath upon my ear.

Aeroplanes

Take me away,
Off into the sunset,
Skirting the ivory clouds,
And soaring above the azure carpets below,
Aboard a vessel of aeronautical freedom,

About to take off!

To see distant cities,
To rest on foreign sands and savannahs,
To lay eyes upon pagodas and itzas,
To bear witness,
To love and romance in alien tongues,

What a view!

Less a holiday,
And more a liberation,
Would you take me away?
I long to be elsewhere,
Or will I remain on the runway?

Wheeeee!

Snakes And Ladders

A friend once told me of a man,
A deceptive corruption of a person,
A viper,
His skin scaly as sin,
Fangs dripping from previous kills,
Gripping to the world by constriction,

He climbs a ladder of life,
To personal happiness and glory,
At the expense of others,
Each rung is another souls verve,
Innocent obstacles,
Squashing them underfoot,

Whispering lies in one ear,
Hissing threats to another,
Ravaging penniless mice,
Grounding birds of others dreams,
Each step is a test of his malevolence,
And he continues to excel himself,

To his reptilian mind,
Elitism is a virtue,
People are simply tools of advancement,
Existence is a ladder,
A cutthroat meritocracy,
And so he keeps climbing,

On and on.

Doom Ballad

Do you hear the drums?
As the stars fall,
Tracing streaks into the blue,
Pounding down with hate and conviction,
The skies and earth ignite in concert,

A symphony of our end,
Percussive beats of destruction,
Brassy cracks of red lightning,
The choirs of agonised wailing join in,
The woodwinds of lives ending,

I know not what crime the globe is convicted,
But I see the sentence,
An astral genocide,
It approaches,
Wreathed in fire and stardust,

Pluto smirks.

The Valkyrie

I once knew a vibrant soul,
A beautiful friend to all,
A wife and parent,
A mother bear,
A woman of boundless love,

We were not privy to her whole life,
But she exuded love and peace,
She supported so many of us,
Helped shoulder our mental weights,
Fondly indefatigable,

She left us,
Perhaps for a greater purpose,
Perhaps needed elsewhere,
To join the cosmic bulwark,
Against the evils of the universe,

She was a humble shieldmaiden,
But now she’s a valkyrie,
An ascended warrior,
A heroine of legend,
Rest in Valhalla my friend.

Overload

Blue screen,
Messages and thoughts abound,
A virus of stress broke through,
Enkindling the synapses,
The brain is overloaded,

Sparks fly,
Vivid depictions of strain,
Voltaic jolts of heartfelt pain,
All shades of superheated emotion,
Overthinking overdrive,

The circuits melt,
Into pitiful sludge,
Formerly logical solder,
Masterfully artificed,
Worn down over years,

As the cortex fries,
This biological frame shuts down,
Finally overwhelmed,
This defect is systemic,
A restart is required.

Geist

I died many moons ago,
A forgotten yesteryear,
A summer of discord,
Stinking heat of golds and silvers,
All burns and bugs,

I amble these haunted houses,
And cemetery streets,
Shadowed by a convoy of corpseflies,
Just a walking dead,
A dusky cadaver,

Invisible to most,
Save for those of a similar spiritual leaning,
Bumping into the unwary,
Shrieking banshee tunes,
A miserable poltergeist,

I’m a wraith,
What killed me?
It’s hard to say,
Memories can be eerie mirages,
But I believe it resemebled Eros.

Romantic Mute

Despite my unseemly form,
Writhing with inadequacies,
I was once a romantic at heart,
A passionate bard,
Singing the praises of my loves,
Seeing the light in the dark,

But it wasn’t to last,
One night was a turntable,
You came to me,
A snide succubus,
A bloody mary,
Lashing flames of erotic venom,

You meant only ill,
Your words brought me a stinging sensation,
As if needles pierced my lips,
Sewing my mouth shut,
You rendered me mute,
Voiceless,

After that hellish night,
My tongue shall never again utter romance,
I speak only with these inked words,
I’d need a scalpel,
To return my joy,
A glasgow smile of sorts,

Truth be told though,
It’s not worth severing these threads.