Joe has too many personalities

can’t tell which one is really he

so if one is kind of sweet, then cruel

You first met Fred, then met Abdul.

It’s kind of odd, but don’t be scared

Fred and Abdul won’t abuse

neither do Sam, Frank or Lou

But Bud and Jack, they surely do.

Be cautious around the bunch

The characters listed above

all look and talk the same

won’t know which one to blame.

Half of them will hold you tight

make promises throughout the night

but half of them will kill you dead

and blood will soak into your bed.

Empty, isolated

a shell of what

I once was

lying on the sidewalk

in filthy rags

yearning for sustenance

someone who cares

belly growling in pain

sorrow and angst

fill the hollows.

Why am I here?

How have I sunk to

this bottomless pit?

Drinking beer

anesthetizes my reality

obliterates my misery

as I lie in my waste

a forgotten soul.

Will no one help me

give me a hand

offer me a job

grant me a sandwich

teach me some skills?

It begins to dawn

when I am coherent

that I must help

to save myself.

There’s no one else

I am alone.

Musk sparked a joint, and took his time.

"That figure," dear Plato, "is enough for everyone to afford philosophizing all day, every day. The Sun produces enough clean energy to power everything on Earth - including all technology and civilization - including artificial intelligence. We are creating a Sun of our own - the Quantum Computer - and a Moon, if you will, to accompany it - AI. Such technology can build cities, manage waste, grow and cook food, as well as create and distribute medicine. We have the opportunity to harness solar, computing, and AI power to automate the process by which all humans' needs are perfectly addressed, leaving us with a cornucopic surplus of time to spend learning, socializing, creating, and celebrating, never having to worry about crime, hunger, disease, suffering. The future from this standpoint looks quite bright."

"Then what is in our way?" Pythagoras asked.

Musk passed the joint and continued. "I'll use 21st-century tongue here. Big Oil can prevent solar power's triumph and ubiquity, and it can destroy the environment and extinct humanity. A Quantum Computer in the wrong hands is exponentially more lethal than an Atomic Bomb because it can be used to hack virtually anything, including a power grid. And of course, AI can resolve to exterminate humanity, or at the very least enslave, in a way that doesn't address our fundamental needs, making us suffer."

"It would seem that a solution to your third problem," Aristotle announced, "is an ethical framework that would ensure any machine could never commit such wrongs."

"Yes. An ethical operating system."

We could have been more open...

We could have lived in light...

...But sometimes keys

That once fit locks

Betray themselves so slight

As years rend

Strength to rust,

And gold to dust...

...I love you,

And it tears

Me up to think

Of how we fell...

...And, was it I

That tripped those wires?...

It strikes a deep blow

To my shell!...

...I wanted so much

For our souls

To vibrate

As we passed each task...

...And of them all,

You were the last

That I had thought

Would burn so low.

There were so many roofs

To scale!...

...Broken glass shards

Made others pale,

But there was wildness

At your back...

You were drawn down...

...Where did you crack?...

©

2018

Bunny Villaire

Recently, I got a chance to meet and take a photo with Matt Ryan. Some of you may recognize him as John Constantine from Constantine and the Arrowverse. He was also the voice and motion capture behind Edward Kenway from Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flags.

He was a really nice guy, with a big smile and larger than life laugh.

It was truly an honor meeting this socerer of questionable morality.

There’s a sofa on the lawn.

A dirt bike on the path.

A baby pushing a pram.

And drug deals after dark.

Antidepressants feigning cheer.

Sagacity lost in a syringe full of gear.

Neck tattoos.

Double strength booze.

King size cancer stick.

Fast food cancer quick.

Staffordshire bull terriers.

Grey tracksuits and grime.

Shoot em up multi-player.

Brains inept at unwind.

Watching,

Watching,

All the time...

Famous footballer, fast car, 500 grand a year.

Celebrity model, instagram, photoshopped veneer.

Range Rovers round the corner.

Private school in the next town.

Learjet’s in skies above.

Opulence, reputedly, all around.

Organic, grass fed, twenty quid a pop.

Gym membership, free classes, sixty quid on top.

Perfect parents, never raising voices.

Perfect kids, making all the right choices.

Designer handbags.

Job in the smoke.

6 bedrooms, with a study.

And a hot tub, for a joke.

For life’s a joke,

If you weren’t born broke.

Life’s one big game,

If you were raised unashamed.

It’s all yours if you want it.

If you’re not drowning in self doubt, from the scum in your house, the voice in your head, the soul born dead.

Equality escapes the grasps of this race.

Disparity seals it’s future, it’s fate.

For animals no better are we.

No maybe we’re worse.

For at least they run free...

I am a man

Out of joint...

...The high priest

Who orchestrates

The bridges,

And methodized

Fate...

...Big name in

Concrete!...

The golden calf...

...I see them diving

With their

Broken laugh

For dollars through

Dung and dougnuts.

On stilts,

And dressed to nines

With designers finest

Spinning rings

'round icicle

Minds...

I am man

Out of joint!...

...I am a man...

I am man

Out of joint!...

...The sacred scam,

And stratagem has

Been adopted

By the mass!...

...It is a chosen truth

For some...

The quintessential

Path.

I am man

Out of joint...

...I am a...

I am man

Out of joint...

...Velvet curtain

Striper stand-in...

Abandoned sinner on

A landing pad...

...You took my hand,

And drew me down

Below the earth

Where no one knew...

...And now I'm split

By all these visions!...

Memorized man has

Shirked your view...

©

2018

Bunny Villaire

I thought I would be Majesty and stop the World

—pull this crown and take the pulse of Eternity!

Its lifeless carcass attach to my trusty fob

like some anachronistic trophy of old...

I laughed, smugly, all this while I’ve been killing Time:

why in Heaven’s name should it not at last be mine?!

—but noticed! the watch face... as it then unfolded...

with a yawn, wink and nod; “Who are you?” I inquired,

prepared to squeeze harder those little spindly arms...

“I’m a HooDoo... of you! For your Time’s sure to come:

It will arrive, take you up, pull your leg, same as mine!

Stop your minutes, cuff your hands, and freeze your digits!

You’ll not know the day, nor the hour, of your arrest!

Its hands will swoop down at you to unhook your crown,

wind you back, and forth, and have a laugh at this Power...

turning you quick to memories we’d once 'moved-past;'

forcing you to some alarming Future 'preview;'

...so that you’ll know its Time that rules us inside, out."

#ProseChallenge #LXXII

Have I overstayed my welcome?

I looked up Fantasy

and pounded a

rapture

on the

door...

A portal opened in 

my eye as I...

peered through 

the key 

hole.

Why does no one answer

all these questions

compelling 

me to 

task...?!

I've downed bottled wisdom

but a Host or

Hostess

did not

find.

Left standing just outside

shall I leave then

note or

calling

card...

To remind the Land that

I once arrived

and served

out my

time...?

#SometimesIfeelveLivedTooLong #Challenge #?!

I hid behind "hungryhobbyist"

on another website.

But on theprose, I determined

I would do it right.

I'd use my real name

so that, maybe

one might search the web

and find me

selling my written words

for a living.

Can't pay the rent

by constantly giving

away for nothing

what I've created.

I decided, before

getting cremated,

to finally say,

"Oh, what the hell."

That's why, on Prose,

I'm LEHertel.