{"id":6845,"date":"2014-04-11T00:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T04:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=6845"},"modified":"2014-04-11T10:36:42","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T14:36:42","slug":"the-future-is-for-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/the-future-is-for-ghosts\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future is For Ghosts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheFutureisforGhosts\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Future is For Ghosts<\/strong><\/p>\n

The future is for ghosts.<\/p>\n

Breeding\u00a0 placidly behind screens.<\/p>\n

Electronic doubles, dead echoes,<\/p>\n

Hollow shells of familiarity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My mind is a ghost.<\/p>\n

My body an echo.<\/p>\n

Never myself,<\/p>\n

Just a lump of days gone by<\/p>\n

Slipping constantly<\/p>\n

Past.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The ghosts of my thoughts are<\/p>\n

Splattered, dead, across this page.<\/p>\n

Lingering restlessly<\/p>\n

From some windy night in the spectral past;<\/p>\n

Lifeless relics of a man who’s ceased;<\/p>\n

\/de-ceased.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ode to a Cigarette<\/strong><\/p>\n

A glowing, pulsing,<\/p>\n

Molten ember sits<\/p>\n

Ephemerally –<\/p>\n

Neither solid nor liquid –<\/p>\n

In my hand.<\/p>\n

Elemental;<\/p>\n

Pure fire made tangible.<\/p>\n

Caking over this core,<\/p>\n

Dark, crackling webs of ash<\/p>\n

Snake,<\/p>\n

Twisting and binding<\/p>\n

And devouring this pulsar<\/p>\n

With each breath –<\/p>\n

Inhale, exhale –<\/p>\n

The star swells…<\/p>\n

Swells…<\/p>\n

And contracts.<\/p>\n

The pulse retreats.<\/p>\n

Ash crumbles down through the cosmos.<\/p>\n

Life and death and beauty<\/p>\n

Oscillates with my lungs.<\/p>\n

But mainly death.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Love is Blind<\/strong><\/p>\n

Glassy eyes nestle softly midst your smooth, plastic face.<\/p>\n

Have you always been this smooth?<\/p>\n

Animated, moist lips throw out dust<\/p>\n

Scraped from the cooling magma bubbling through your veins.<\/p>\n

You have veins, right?<\/p>\n

I’ve seen them.<\/p>\n

Almost.<\/p>\n

Lights and shadows roll, life tumbles onwards before our eyes.<\/p>\n

You see it, right?<\/p>\n

You’ve always liked the stars; infinty draws you.<\/p>\n

You feel gravity more than most – The weight of our expanse.<\/p>\n

Or so you’ve always said.<\/p>\n

In some less poetic way.<\/p>\n

I think.<\/p>\n

I love you.<\/p>\n

The way you think,<\/p>\n

Your freckled cheeks, childhood insecurities<\/p>\n

And irrational philanthropy.<\/p>\n

Did I ever tell you my childhood fears?<\/p>\n

Maybe some.<\/p>\n

But not that one.<\/p>\n

Never.<\/p>\n

Can you hear me now? This silent dialogue?<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

I think I can hear you…<\/p>\n

Or my two-way monologues.<\/p>\n

The way you process the world,<\/p>\n

Churn and spit it back out,<\/p>\n

Fascinates me.<\/p>\n

I’m in love with your subterranean workings.<\/p>\n

Or I’m in love with myself and your face.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Impotent<\/strong><\/p>\n

This pen feels bulky,<\/p>\n

cumbersome between my<\/p>\n

Stiff, unsteady fingers.<\/p>\n

These keys I<\/p>\n

depress,<\/p>\n

dusty and foreign,<\/p>\n

Weighted with familiarity – where once words flowed like wine in<\/p>\n

steady ribbons<\/p>\n

– rhythms –<\/p>\n

Delving down my spinal column,<\/p>\n

Furrowing over bones and kuckles<\/p>\n

In coursing electrical pulses…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Their echoes tingle…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prickling<\/p>\n

anticipation.<\/p>\n

The empty page reclines temptingly,<\/p>\n

Legs spread open for me<\/p>\n

And the fumbling stranger in my hand<\/p>\n

stays stiff<\/p>\n

and mute.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Buy Me<\/strong><\/p>\n

A jungle of sterilized, lipstick seductions<\/p>\n

– Smooth, plastered, eyelash fantasies –<\/p>\n

Relentlessly caressing<\/p>\n

With an airless wink and slip of the tongue…<\/p>\n

It infests city streets,<\/p>\n

Claws its painted nails along my ear canals,<\/p>\n

Jumps up and down for my attention,<\/p>\n

And whore’s out red-lipped fantasy<\/p>\n

– That had better be your wallet<\/p>\n

Bulging in your pocket.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Alexander Pseudonym is a graduate from Sussex University. Many of his poems deal with themes such as death, ghosts and the sprawling urban complexity of mankind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The future is for ghosts.<\/p>\n

Breeding placidly behind screens.<\/p>\n

Electronic doubles, dead echoes,<\/p>\n

Hollow shells of familiarity.<\/p>\n

My mind is a ghost.<\/p>\n

My body an echo.<\/p>\n

Never myself,<\/p>\n

Just a lump of days gone by<\/p>\n

READ MORE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":7019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,218,219,199],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6845"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6845"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7021,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6845\/revisions\/7021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}