Silence vs Gibberish

My silences are sprinting
They're so many, at once

There's a pimple on my wooden face
Waiting to be burst
But the silences come first
They threaten me with an explosion
I can already smell ashes
Grey, spotty, flaky, and choking
A ruined world remaking

No I'm not romanticizing
Someone else's war
All my problems are mine, okay?
My jarred edges
Reek of stale cynicism
My unlit mind
Damp and resistant to hope

I try to look like I care
Resharing brutal news
Replaying the victims' tears
I mimic activism
Lying passive in my bed of privilege
Unremarkable in my performative concern
As I think to myself
The world will always stretch, tear and burn

I am throwing my words around
Because I like their gibberish sounds
They're hurdles for the silent beams
That are racing towards me

And I don't want to be found.

2020s

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

It was the year when millions died
And a girl woke out of love
It was when shells were broken
Souls roamed free
Bodies stuck to their cages
For what seemed like ages

People online played board games
A man broke his back
Scratching miles on earth
To and fro, a migrant and a labourer
Nothing more nor less
Perhaps a little less human

Sunrise dripped out of the sky
The youth shed tears
Mourning its days of freedom
Hearts beat as fast as
Fingers typed on screens
Reality had shifted its venue

And the old, they died
And I remembered the saying
Death is the death of the fear of death
But death is real as real can get.
It was the year we all broke anew
It was the year I fell for you.