just a bad dream. For now…
the door opened suddenly
and it hit the
poor dog who scowled and
got out of the way
before the woman entered
"Oh, for fuck's sake!” she shouted
Her hands were busy with
shopping bags. They looked heavy
and she looked tired
and quite pissed
and grew even more pissed
when she laid eyes on her husband,
in the living room,
sprawled on the couch,
buried under cigarette ashes
and empty beer cans
The house smelled of
singed hairs from his knuckles and
arms. Even burnt skin
and clothes
The small holes in his shorts
looked like crawling cockroaches
fighting over the crumbs in his lap
He greeted his wife with a
deep belching sound
and closed his eyes
"What the hell you doing?” she
yelled, loud enough to
make him open his eyes
"Dying,” he said
"What?”
"Dying.”
"Listen here, you piece of shit, I left
the house hours ago
and you were pretty much living.
What the hell happened in this
time?”
"I quit my job,” he said. "I quit writing.”
"You what?”
"Yeah. What's the point anymore? They
make all the art now.”
"They?”
"AI”
"What?”
"Artificial Intelligence, love. It took over
art. Completely. You literally just
punch some key words into a
search engine and the AI generates
art based on them.
First were the painters. They all died.
Painters.
People who draw.
People who design things.
Architects.
And eventually... us, writers and poets.
AI killed us all.
There is nothing left for us to do
but to die.”
His wife said nothing. Just
placed the shopping bags down
and came to face him
and sighed
"Darling,” she said, "it apparently
happened yet again.
You... are an idiot. Period.
But I guess that's what happens when
the faculty of imagination is
far more developed compared to that
of intelligence.
The goddamned AI... it's in that last
novel you're writing, isn't it?”
"Huh? What?”
"You're writing a novel about AI taking
over art, aren't you?”
"Oh... Damn. I... Uh, I love you. I mean,
what would I do
without you?”
"You dumbass...”
***
INSTAGRAM:
https://www.instagram.com/bogdan_1_dragos/
Oh look a squirrel!
PLAN !..
This life don't always go as
planned
Even when you think you got
The whole damn world within your hands
WEIGHT!...
Getting heavy on your shoulders
As you wait
Like it may not be too late
Yet now you Contemplate
your fate
DRUNK!...
And yes I mean so motherfucking
drunk
Can't relax now as your brain
Now treats you like some
dumbass punk
HANG on!....
To all the shit that's been unsaid
As past comfort now tips
OVER
And ROLLS
Right off the damn bed
FUCKING BLUBBER!...
Please forgive me for my sin
And this stupid tipsy pen
Breaking character again
These last 5 lines do not fit in
BINGE!... Watch
The past in your head now
As you take
A phantom quake now implanted just to make your
Memories SHAKE
FAIL!...
The past just unopened
Mail in brail
The coffin seeks to never speak
Now of the unspoken
Final nail
To hell with all that!
6 feet breaking through
The surface
Feeling only half decayed
The ball must drop with
A new purpose
Daniel Jacob Dabney And my..
Good fucking riddance
2022 type of mind
Perfect Water
The great lakes would swallow you,
the ocean not know you're there.
The Finger Lakes will cradle
and expand your life, and share.
Water a mile across.
Water an hour long.
Water white-capped in the wind
and glass at night when it's gone.
Stand beside it with some wine;
drink its bounty deep.
Smell and gaze and hear and taste.
Feel its breadth, then sleep.
SHATTER (continued)
The air surrounding her body was frigid. Also, something had started to crawl over her body.
She woke up with a start, & tried to scream, but her mouth was missing from her face. Clarah waved her hands frantically back and forth trying to swat whatever was crawling over her skin.
Then she heard the sound of bones crackling not too far from her body. She felt another thing clinging tightly around her legs.
She twisted her body around to get free from these things. Alas, nothing she did worked.
Clarah then felt a sudden wave of energy burst from her palms. She created such an intense blinding light that sizzled the things to a crisp.
She heard a round of applause coming from her backside. The clapping became louder as whoever it was drew nearer to her side.
As soon as the clapping stopped, Clarah yelled out: ‘Stay back!’
The thing standing behind her snickered. ‘O, what shall become of me once I get struck by whatever it is you just did? Do you even know how to use your gift?’
Clarah sniffled and took a deep breath. ‘Uhhmm…yes.. at least I think so—’ she said as she finally realized that her mouth was back in its rightful place, and not missing anymore.
The thing stated at Clarah and the burst out laughing, while slowly unraveling Clarah from the invisible threads that were around her body.
She fell down from her mid-air threading trap. How she had ended up in that state she had absolutely no clue.
Clarah thanked her knight, or rather dark shadow being in bony armor. When she turned around the thing charged toward her in a nanosecond.
It stopped directly right before her very eyes, slowly gazing into Clarah’s eyes. Never had it seen eyes that seemed to glow like the sun.
The thing stepped back, and asked, ‘Who sent you here?’
Clarah gulped and sighed. ‘I should be the one asking the questions here!’ She was getting tired of whatever this place was.
The thing pulled out a what looked like a watch that had been hidden underneath its armor. Clarah could not tell what the watch was for. It did not have one face, but quite a number of them.
‘What is that?’
‘What is what?’
‘That.’ Clarah beckoned at the watch.
The watch vanished from the thing’s hold, & landed in Clarah’s hands. She stared at the contraption, paying attention to every little arm that was moving at such a rapid speed for Clarah to tell what exactly it was measuring.
The thing yelled out. ‘Enough of your magick tricks— hand that back to me- you must be a witch.’
Clarah shook her head. ‘I am NOT a witch!’
‘Alright then if you’re NOT a witch, then you must be a…Oh..’
Clarah raised her eyebrow. ‘Well, tell me.’
The thing quickly pulled out more stuff from underneath its armor, and then screamed the moment a book landed on the ground. It used one of its bony fingers to unlock the book.
Clarah waited for the thing to let her know what it was trying to tell her.
It grinned, then looked from the book to Clarah. ‘You are definitely NOT a witch.’ It closed the book, and started whistling.
Clarah frowned. ‘Come on. Tell me what you read in the book. What does it tell you I am?’
The thing shrugged its shoulders. ‘I have no clue what the book said. I just wanted to look more wise reading from it. Anyway, let’s go.’
‘Where are we going?’
The thing sighed. ‘You sure do ask a lot of questions. We’re off to see the Mfumu.’
‘The What?’
‘Don’t worry. He might not try to eat you, at least once he hears what you can do.’
Clarah followed the thing into a portal that was a bit further away from the spot that she had been trapped in. She was glad to at least have not been eaten by the thing, or whatever else had been waiting to slowly consume her bit by bit.
#SHATTER (c) 28th June, 2022.
SHATTER
Clarah stared at the elderly woman laying still. This did not make any sense.
The nurses had just checked in on the woman, and she had been laughing so loud her laugh could be heard from down the hall of the living space for the lost souls.
Some of her silver hair was covering part of her face. As soon as Clarah tried to reach out to move it in the right place, the part that she touched split & fell to the side onto the floor.
Clarah placed one hand over her mouth. Her heart started to beat so fast as if it would burst out of her chest. She stormed out of the room and rushed to the bathroom.
Once there she tried to calm herself down. Then the lights began to flicker. She closed her eyes in a flash…waiting for the lights to get back to working in a normal way.. but they continued to misbehave like a giant flame that was being put out with a burst of water from a magical gourd.
Clarah opened her eyes the minute the lights were functioning properly. She stared in the mirror & froze. Her eyes landed on what she saw in the clear glass.
‘You know I know that you are watching me!’ She bellowed and walked away from her reflection.
She took a deep breath and started to chant:
From the crowing
To the mooring
Souls aligning
Vessels mourning
All come forth
Bring on the mirth
Waves rising
Time bending
Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a piece of thread. It swirled around & started to spin itself around her body, tightening its hold on Clarah.
She felt the room getting smaller and crashed onto the floor. After a while, she opened her eyes and found herself back in a familiar place.
‘Hello, there!’ The old lady smiled at her young friend. Clarah tried to get up and bow her head, but she could not move.
‘Now don’t you worry dear. You need your rest. The work has only began. Go tell the others to get ready, too.’
Clarah gave a slight nod and found herself already out of the room, in the hallway on her way to inform the rest of the crew.
What was she going to say to them? Who was this woman anyway? How in the world did she end up in this strange place?
Clarah stopped in the hallway and looked back. All the doors in the corridor had vanished. She began to run and the passage only became longer, and longer.
All of a sudden she heard something begin to crack. She looked down, and the floor beneath her was not there anymore.
‘Ahhhh!’ She screamed as she fell down… to her demise.
#SHATTER (c) 10/06/2022.