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[446] The Same Old Song

Up again
I fear admitting
that I can admit fear
Elongated status quo misery
to not admit
the misery of my psyche
Rationale finds me conveniently
when habit is found to be absentminded
Days flow in a daze
Time passes me mesmerised
In an imprisoning loop
of an infinite laughter
So I give in… to… sleep.

Up again
I fear admitting
that I can admit fear…
Altschmerz

NaPoWriMo Day 27: In today’s (optional) prompt, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem inspired by an entry from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. The entries are very vivid – maybe too vivid! But perhaps one of the sorrows will strike a chord with you, or even get you thinking about defining an in-between, minor, haunting feeling that you have, and that does not yet have a name.

I chose the word Altschmerz which means weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had—the same boring flaws and anxieties you’ve been gnawing on for years, which leaves them soggy and tasteless and inert, with nothing interesting left to think about, nothing left to do but spit them out and wander off to the backyard, ready to dig up some fresher pain you might have buried long ago.

Illustration by Nicolas Malinowsky

Rahul Gaur

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