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/

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

There are days that flow,

a sparkling stream

reflecting the sun

making the world bright.

Others resemble

a churning river

that, overflowing,

drags with it the path.

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.

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.

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.