I wrote these 2 poems when I was 18, during what I lovingly refer to as my era of philosophical puberty. That chaotic hormonal period where you discover absurdism, irony, and the limits of language all at once, and the only reasonable response is to mock the universe while trying to seduce it.
They’re messy, twitchy, and sincere.
One laughs through the void, the other chokes on inspiration.
Both were attempts to make sense of being a human brain in a meat suit wrestling with meaninglessness without sounding like a tool (only semi-successfully).
Thanks, Douglas Adams and ee cummings.
1 - insane nonsense
oh boy do i laugh,
when stuff happens
to people.
and when people happen to stuff,
because stuff has always been around,
and what changes is people.
i can’t tell you why things happen
or why they don’t—HoO kaN?—why Kant i type right?—
i can’t tell you why it’s funny,
nor can i interpret existence—
just tell you that it’s there.
and the fact that existence exists
deconstructs itself
because
its (the
fact’s)
own
MEaning
MEans nothing, just makes you laugh
because MEANing itself must be whole.
and to make stuff mean stuff takes some real stuff
YOU gotta happen to stuff.
What did i just say?
I bet it’s g OLD.
2 - inspired
wow, can you hear?
wow, can’t you see?
now, I can’t bear
It.
too much inspiration at one time, you see.
Corny r’dundant lines in a row, you see?
Maybe just for entertainment I do write.
Maybe I just entertain to write.
When I’m cold and rational I make sense.
When I’m warm and joyous I can’t make the rent.
For all my trying, my stuff don’t sell.
New ideas, like ducks in a row
sooner or later must leave their lane.
And mate with other duckies
till their loins are split in twain.
Thanks for reading.
Two poems from the basement of my brain, age 18—technically an adult, existentially a bag of question marks.
You’re officially complicit.
These made me giggle. Thank you for sharing :)
I really enjoyed these. They feel so raw and real. Thank you for bringing them back to the surface!