. Poetry from The Great In-Between: Weltschmerz: The man worn down by the world's ills.

Friday, October 29, 2021

Weltschmerz: The man worn down by the world's ills.

  



Press play before you read. Salute.


(A lone voice whispers)

Looking for answers in this

The blackest of all pits
filled with bitter but sweet tasting human emotions

Illuminated by the flickering half glow of this fading miners lantern

Sat by my burning coal fire at four am


I write these few words down for future inspiration 


To encourage me before I f
eel the need to subdue the sharp pang of my apotheosis of all old friends 


With this sweet tasting malt whiskey 

 

The one who I turn to ritually

Called Mr Damnation 

 

For to be able to hear you whisper 


So be it again

 

I'd be driven crazy 


As I caress your precious velvety memories 

And admit to that grim-faced shadow of a man

 

My own perpetual stalker 


Who's staring back in this faded old black mirror 


Whispering that I should try to carry on

 

Thinking back to those happier times 


When we might have had a chance to be optimistic like so many

 
But just like every other third couple 

 

Who met and tried to stay together


While wading knee-deep 
in newly discovered rivers of uncertainty 


Through trial and error 

 

We were tragically pursued by the real broken ones 


Those living in painted white houses 


With twitching grey curtains made of out cheap 
lace

 

Those who deem themselves to be


The Beautiful Ones in society 

 

The badly polished and preened


Strutting about with all their treacherous airs and graces


Just to be seen

 

We were unjustly discriminated against 
by those like feverish lions 


Those sad losers 
Who deemed our liaison

 

To be tainted and under their covetous judgemental eyes


To be on so many levels


Immorally corrupted and dangerously fragmented 

 

But to you, my beloved

 

Now erroneously judged 

Likened to a corrupt 17th-century museum 


Filled with pagan occult pictures


By a cancel culture fuelled by heathen convictions

 

My soon to be obsolete heart still sings 


As it remembers those wild crazy days and passion-filled nights

 

When we stood firm and issued 


All those endless FUs with such excitement and rage

 

How we then ran away from Deep Dale


With anything we could muster and carry


To turn a new page

 
Caught a flight North and got married

 

Went to Las Vegas
Booked into The Bellagio 

 

Cruised the Strip and made wild drunken oaths 


To each other that we'd never be tempted to go back


No matter what news or stories we hear


Broadcasted over the TV or radio 

 

I hope tonight 

As I close my eyes for maybe the last time 


As my nice lifelong friend

Doc Dupont says my last prayers and rites

Over malt whiskey and ice

 

You know 

You were always my life’s 


True one and only 

 

And I truly understand why you left

 

It's not easy trying to live with the news 


Of both of your parent's sudden deaths

 

Even though after all these years since you've been gone


My heart still skips a beat 


For I know my love channelled 
through my treasured memories 


Will soon
To you flow so damn easily

 

Reuniting you with those incredible few years

 

When we escaped to The Bellagio


And lived together 


For a short while to renew

 

Free from the long reach of The Beautiful Ones 


Living together so peacefully  

 

And now as I reflect


I never knew lonely until that fate dayful day in 1998


When I lost you

 

Copyright John Duffy

 


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