illusion – radical druid

Sometimes It Matters

Published on November 20, 2025

Sometimes the past parades itself
before the sun makes its appearance
in the tiny shrinking shadows of dawn
when the world is not yet awake.
In these times, the memories flood my mind
and overwhelm my sense of self.

Sometimes a thing explains itself:
each of us is somewhat self-contained,
our sense of purpose lost in pointless lyrics,
we seek out more than mere melody.
In these times, the songs we learn to sing
can be enough to get by.

Sometimes a thought makes itself known,
peeking its cautious nose around the corner
looking to root out a treat from your clenched hand
like a puppy after its first yoga stretch.
In these times, the words we speak
are relatively unimportant.

Sometimes a great notion comes into being.
It’s usually the least recognizable thing in the room.
What can you do with it now?

20 NOV 2025

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This Anymore

Published on November 19, 2025

I don’t want to do this anymore.
The world is not doing any worse than it ever was.
We’re not going to hell in a handbasket.
We made up hell to convince ourselves this wasn’t so bad after all.
We imagine that things are going to get better.
We offer thoughts and prayers to make it so.

I don’t want to do this anymore.
I never thought I would get this old.
I never dreamed that as the world gets smaller and smaller, so would I.
When you say your first word, it’s hard to imagine running out of things to say.
But it happens.
At some point past your natural expiration date
you see yourself fading away.

I don’t want to do this anymore.
I’m having conversations to hear myself talk,
and I can’t stand the sound of my own voice.
Every straw man I can stand up
is on fire.

I don’t want to do this anymore.
I’m just so tired.

I don’t want to do this anymore.
I don’t want to talk about it.
I don’t want to grow, evolve, or develop into something else.
I don’t care what I’ve left undone.

It doesn’t matter.

I don’t want to do this anymore.
But what else is there?

19 NOV 2025

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The Last Present

Published on November 15, 2025

There is no time like the Present;
that’s what all the pundits say.
They’ll be saying it next season.
It’s the one that got away.

There is no time but the present;
that just now and yesterday,
the coming nexts or maybe soons
that occupy and stay.

Time is, just as a construct,
one more useful set of bars.
The less that you can see them,
the more watchful are your guards.

It’s the ones you don’t see coming:
that’s what gets you in the end.
There’s that one defining moment,
when we either break or bend.

And at the time it seems like
even time has had enough.
When things are tough all over,
time is all you have to bluff.

There’s no time like the present.
It’s like that in a sense.
Forget what you think you may know,
that life experience,

And wander down the hall with me
to some new secret room
where we can have time to ourselves,
until sometime in June.

15 NOV 2025

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What You Think It Is

Published on September 4, 2025

It isn’t what you think it is at all.
There is no solid substance underneath.
Just one small push will make the whole thing fall,
and patching it together, to be brief,
is just a pointless exercise, designed
to take you far beyond your breaking point,
and there, when you begin to lose your mind,
to leave you helplessly and fully out of joint.

It’s an illusion: what you think you see
as disconnected one-offs in the void
are neither separate, stand-alone, or free.
They try to be, but quickly get annoyed
with any effort made to reconcile
their make-believe, imagined state of grace,
with a mere safety net meant to beguile
and leave you with a smile upon your face.

This freedom that you seek, and prize so high:
what do you think it means to stand alone
while life and love’s engagements pass you by
and do not leave their numbers in your phone?
You are not an island tossed out in the sea,
a thousand miles from any human touch.
There is no place where you are not with me.
You cannot disengage the world that much.

It isn’t what you want to think. How real
does your imagination make this seem?
Beneath the shadows, will you find some steel,
or only graying remnants of a dream?
That sense of permanence is just a lie
you tell yourself makes substance out of dust,
and gives you satisfaction, by and by,
until like everything, it turns to rust.

04 SEP 2025

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We Like To Think

Published on August 15, 2025

We like to think the truth is complicated,
that life is how it is because it’s hard
to figure it all out while it is happening
and comes at you, rapid fire, non-stop.

We like to think our big brains are so useful,
that the solutions we come up with are so wise.
After all, we spend so much time thinking.
There must be something worthwhile in it.

We like to think we don’t like drama,
that life is better when we keep it real.
But that’s too simple, really, to be right.
If it were just that, wouldn’t everyone do it?

We like to think, because our minds invent
an endless stream of objections and excuses
designed to convince us we don’t know anything.
If we could figure it out, we would. Right?

We like to think the world is complicated.
But that’s because it’s follow-through that’s hard.
If life were simply our imagination,
we’d never need to fix another thing.

We like to think the truth should be more clever
than simple minds like ours can figure out.
But we don’t need more gurus, saints, or teachers.
It’s not that hard to be a better person.

15 AUG 2025

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Saying Nothing: sonnet

Published on August 14, 2025

So many ways to share our thoughts, and yet,
we choose instead to merely nod and wink
to better justify and then forget
those fleeting moments where we stop to think.

It’s not a conversation that we seek,
nor dialogue that motivates our daily posts.
We tend to lead with pictures, and not speak,
lest we reveal our monsters as mere ghosts.

We give ourselves so little time and space
to build ideas into flesh and blood.
Preoccupied with scandal and disgrace,
we lose our focus wallowing in mud.

And what is that we really want to say?
The world is wrong if it’s not done my way.

14 Aug 2025

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Tag: illusion

Sometimes It Matters

This Anymore

The Last Present

What You Think It Is

Engagement

We Like To Think

Saying Nothing: sonnet