Afterlife Circus

Photo by Huỳnh Đạt from Pexels

Boys on television recreating circus acts from afterlife.

Dancing on technicolor dreams, reflecting futures so bright…

I’m on the other side, vinyl and denim bruising my knees.

He says: “Baby, breathe through it, you’ll live as you please.”

The grass is greener in the shows though and I cannot stop

Imagining that I’m the cursed one, making every episode flop.

They praise bad luck as if it’s fortunate you cannot sleep

And you have to hurt another night, sinking more than a neck deep.

Somedays I’ve lost the remote, the pictures don’t pop up.

Whenever I find it, the times have changed, my spine drops.

Is this a horror show or maybe a well-timed afternoon trick?

If not… The boys on the TV are making me gravely sick.

-JW

Late Night Angst

Photo by Romain Kamin

The lack of voices in my head sounds like a symphony,

The quiet times in my mind are showing me some sympathy –

They sing to me.

I would raise a glass but my thoughts are as tired

As a race horse the second new jockey is hired –

It’s true (if he’s a friar).

***

I don’t change for any wind: course northbound, sail’s intact…

Some days I think of myself as an act – or an artefact.

It’s rather wonderful how I change everything yet stay in place

But it’s only two cents to enter the race –

And it will always seem like I’m slowing the pace

So join. I’m the last thing in life I can truly handle

But it’s getting foggy so blow out the candle.

Dreams are a nomad’s lantern but I’m too tired to light it,

I’d rather use a sharp compass and a good map reader to fight it –

The imminent death that’s our carrot and stick,

To be honest, god must’ve really planned this trick.

Such naïve beginnings to end up wiser when it’s your time

Rather than taking you full of ego and youthful sublime.

***

I never truly understood why I even was born, I’m not kidding,

Because it’s so easy to climb and to fall, yet still feel like winning.

Your mind can make villas out of allies or department stores

So no one’s really the loser in reaching the highest of goals.

And that’s why I find life entertaining instead of depressive

As irony is a kind of entertainment if you don’t get obsessive –

Find it meaningful enough to plan out every move in the way.

Not to be the advisor to your wiseacre

But history’s also written by those who don’t live another day.

-JW