Happiness one day,
decided to sit at the edge of a cliff.
It watched the sun
being brutally devoured
by ravaged rodents.
Tenebrosity acquainted with the gleamed moon.
All living plants
orgy
in a puddle of piss/
famine is a Pope Crocodile masturbator.
Happiness bewildered/
it witnessed death
turned
ocean into ebola.
Exhausted heart reminisced, sobbing.
Happiness pulled
out a knife
from its pocket,
sliced both its wrist
and neck,
suicide sang heaven’s lullaby backward/
humanity paralyzed
by the record player.
Copyright © 2019 Charlie Zero the Poet
All rights Reserved.
No part of The Rodents Turned Happiness a Shredded Catastrophe – may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Charlie Zero the Poet and his poetry works with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Charlie, of everything I have read of yours over the years, this is hands down my most favourite. It’s just beautiful and deeply moving.
The first and last stanzas are so, so, poetically, artistically crafted. I am in genuine awe.
I’ve read it 3 times already.
Love it.
I feel this is very deeply you
Standing ovation from me
Xxxx
Thank you so so much my friend.
In response to what I wrote to a few commenter blew:
“This poem was written during a moment when I got extremely emotional
and depressed. I had a dream that I, as the metaphor of happiness
felt alone and with no sign of hope. I envision this poem as a surrealism
people from all over the world not caring anymore about themselves
or anything else that is considered good in this world.
It hurt me deeply and my nightmares of death followed are still haunting me.
I was all alone in my dream and I cried, hoping there’s a light.
The end poem pretty much speaks for itself.”
I second what Fiery said. This piece is incredibly emotionally gripping. Thought provoking. Heavy and yet bittersweet. Happiness as both a character and a metaphor is brilliant.
The ‘exhausted heart’ line, as well as ‘suicide sang heaven’s lullaby backward’ are both just…. breathtaking.
Bravo Charlie this is just gorgeous. I love how it ends on the record player….
😘🤗
Everything in this poem had to be taken into a sequence from the perspective of Happiness and the narrator itself.
The idea just grow and the anxiety co-existed naturally deep in the bottom.
The record player is my favorites as well and that one really struck with everyone. 🙂
So happy and glad you enjoyed the poem. P.S Read your email. 🙂
It’s just gorgeous….
🙂
❤️
Thank you my friend.
This poem was written during a moment when I got extremely emotional
and depressed. I had a dream that I, as the metaphor of happiness
felt alone and with no sign of hope. I envision the people from all over the world not caring anymore
about anything at all. It hurt me deeply and my nightmares of death followed me.
I was all alone in my dream and I cried, hoping there’s a light.
The end poem pretty much speaks for itself.
I’ve suffered from existential depression much of my life. The effort to find something to grab onto that gives me hope or purpose is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever had to do. 😘
I know exactly how you feel. Depression is a struggle and a fight that most of us have to battle through it
and find a balance. It’s not easy but there is progress though challenging.
——————————–Charlie,
I agree with you,
“humanity is paralyzed by the record player”
our time on earth is limited to our flat reality
played over and over
life is just a babysitter for death
oh sure, people will give examples
of how wild and exciting life can be
climbing mountains and jumping out of planes
may be fascinating at first
but even that becomes routine
the record player plays on
always side A never side B
side B is a mystery
common daydream,
pupil learns to flip the record
and then teaches other pupils
to do likewise
reality,
beauty fades away
youth is wasted on the young
pleasure becomes too difficult to maintain
life just becomes a collection of memories
tracks on side A
Death itself is a record player
it plays many loops on our reality –
the trickery the test,
Is our fate a test towards death?
or, death teasing us that our time on earth
is limited and we can strive to live another day?
Your right about Side B,
its the mystery of them all.
Maybe Side B is the forbidden knowledge of reality itself?
Omg this is epic. I so love this , I so loved this , I am going to read this over and over .
Thank you Yassy.
I wrote in response to a commenter a 2 rows above:
“This poem was written during a moment when I got extremely emotional
and depressed. I had a dream that I, as the metaphor of happiness
felt alone and with no sign of hope. I envision the people from all over the world not caring anymore
about anything at all. It hurt me deeply and my nightmares of death followed me.
I was all alone in my dream and I cried, hoping there’s a light.
The end poem pretty much speaks for itself.”
Charlie .
It’s okay…I feel good today. I just thought I post something different and a side of my work that rarely sees the light.
It’s how I felt and I know there’s people here who feel probably the same. Anxiety and depression tend to get the best of us in our dreams the most.
We all love you , Charlie. It’s always good to see you here and read your intellectually invigorating stuff .
Always here 🤗
Writing produces happiness and happiness produces creativity.
Bless you my friend. 🙂
Yes, yes, writing is everything. It’s life !!
Charlie 😊
🙂
😊🌞
the B-52’s – Private Idaho (ACR10 – NTSC)
🙂
😊
Pope Crocodile masturbator. Lol.
Loved that ending. We’re stunned, but go back to repeating the same mistakes.
Brilliant, my dear, Charlie. Please go on.
hahahahaha!!! I know right. That line must’ve got everyone saying (What the hell!?) hahahahaha!!!!
There’s a secret to stop the loop from false reality to the positive one.
What that is…I’m not quite sure. Only way to find out is if we build our own world in the dream-scape
and from their can reverse what is the actuality of reality itself.
Just a thought. 🙂
Charlie, this is so very deep, I am very moved by this. Your personification of happiness is brilliant. Your words lay bare the effort to strive for happiness though the world often drags us down and we wonder about everything. your poem is beautiful, I felt the deep emotion here. Bravo Charlie. Pure genius!
Agree!!!
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~Buddha
The struggles the world puts us on. We are fighters within and we can overcome their burden and ignorance.
Happiness will prevail. 🙂
Indeed Charlie. 😊
Kyoka Boiler Room Tokyo Live Set
Charlie,
This is a turn of poetry for you!
I adore the honesty, albeit cloaked in a modicum of dire drear.
Light, dark, light, dark ad infinitum is the trace of the trance we live in.
Therefore the light is next, in spite of, and because it is: Drawkcab yballul s’nevaeh.
Take care! The weather turned bleak & cold here, so I’m waiting for a day to paint (Thanksgiving weekend was fab, but no time to paint) NOW… I’m considering a mermaid… I think I can do that!
Winter has reared it’s coming!
My favorite interpretation by you Resa. I love what you said.
And the love the reverse line. 🙂
Take your time with the paint, no rush. 🙂 I’m a patient person. 🙂
Mermaids are awesome! Definitely a must. 🙂
Holy shit, do much gold in this piece. U were right, I’m blown away. Love this
I figure you would enjoy this piece.
Since you wrote about loneliness and pain. I wrote this surrealist emotional truth of happiness the metaphor being myself vs. the world at end.
“And if you feel
that you can’t go on
And your will’s sinkin’ low
Just believe
and you can’t go wrong
In the light
you will find the road.”
~ Led Zeppelin
“And the sky is filled with light
Can you see it?
All the black is really white
If you believe it
As your time is running out
Let me take away your doubt
You can find a better a place
In this twilight”
~Nine Inch Nails
“Stuttering, cold and damp
Steal the warm wind tired friend
Times are gone for honest men
And sometimes
far too long for snakes
In my shoes, a walking sleep
And my youth I pray to keep
Heaven sent hell away
No one sings like you anymore
Black hole sun
Won’t you come
And wash away the rain.”
~ Soundgarden
“Heaven’s dead when you get sad
I see your wishes fly
Out of time
For the best time you’ve had”
~Audioslave
“And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will”
~ Leonard Cohen
“I still recall the taste of your tears
Echoing your voice just like the ringing in my ears
My favorite dreams of you still wash ashore
Scraping through my head ’till I don’t want to sleep anymore”
~ Nine Inch Nails
………………………………Charlie,
Thanks for your kindness !!!
Your resident Happiness starts this poem
with rodents
devouring the sun
not just any rodents
but, RAVAGED RODENTS
rodents who have suffered violent
often cumulative depredation
rodents who probably went to public school
the first system that refuses the individual
self-definition
self-expression
a place where frailty knows no limit
the frail torture the frail
shading down to a shadow
at the end
I don’t think Happiness pulled out a knife
more likely, an e-cigarette
a simple vape
draws more attention than suicide
…………………………………………………Michael,
Thank you for your Kindness! and Generosity.
I probably went
Down the residents head/
happiness chewing through the rodents savagery.
Where does the public shadow
frail self-expression?
Simple, E-cigarette
and the likely hood of shading torture.
We devour a poems vape/
but we don’t acknowledge
its self-definition cumulative end.
im in love with this Charlie amazing work!
Thank you my friend.
I needed to change shifts and tone with some poetic emotions. 🙂
Charlie, I am reeling from the beauty and intensity of this, the image of happiness feeling so hopeless it sat at the edge of a cliff, suicidal, dreaming of such devastation in ways that clawed and shredded my own heart too. This poem articulates so much despair, the depths of depression. I wish you didn’t have the knowledge of this experience to write this, it makes my heart ache that you do. But also, what you have created here is sublime. Such beauty you create from it.
This truly is a masterpiece. I read it and I felt it and then I just wanted to read it again and again.
Hugs to you my friend.
The balance is needed. Depression inside all of us is a battle to no end.
Hope reaches for twilight that we all need and find a serenity.
It sucks what I felt gave birth to this experience. My dreams have been better and I’ve been constantly reading a lot and writing so much. And of course, which great cinema of films. 🙂
Hugs from me to you my friend.
Hope all is well with you?
I am impressed! This is so different. Your surrealist edge is still here, but this is almost like a poem in a children’s book of the future. Keep surprising us 🙂
Thank you Basilike.
I wanted to approach happiness from a metaphor point of view of that futurism edge and how its connected to our times and forward.
When I’m in my moods I’ll like stuff like this. It’s rare though. 🙂
Whatever you do is rare, Charlie. You are one of a kind!
Bless you my friend. 🙂
Death turned the ocean into Ebola.
Fantastic imagery, Charlie.
Thank you Daisy.
This poem of mine took a different shift in tone and an emotional depth.
Glad you enjoyed the line. I love that line as well. 🙂
You’re right, balance is needed, and we need to take the time to look after ourselves when we need to, to find that balance. So, I’m happy you have been reading and writing and watching films.
Me? I am ok. I think so, you know. My week away really helped me. I haven’t been writing much though, as somehow I find it difficult to connect to my experience with words lately…
Thank you, for caring to ask. Listened to some of the music you suggested too. Uboa touches something painful, akin to depression I think.
I’m glad your week away helped you in so much. Sometimes, we all need to recollect and find ourselves.
Of course I care – you are such a great and wonderful friend. 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed ‘Uboa’ it does tackle the depth of pain and depression. I love the noise she comes up with.
And thank you for introducing me to
“Salmonella Dub”
“Tiki Taane”
Their grooves and musical composition is fantastic and packed with so much soul and rhythm. 🙂
Charlie, this is gorgeous. You outdid yourself. To a certain extent it’s a canvas of the world. The happiness sits at the edge of the cliff , the sun is devoured, ebola. Powerful imagines written by one of my most talented friend. ‘
I really love it.
Blessings and happiness to you.
Thank you my friend.
My direction in writing needed a change shift from by usual experimental works.
Glad the images in the poem felt something within you and how its related to our world today. 🙂
Blessings to you my friend. 🙂
Hey Charlie, I noticed you were going in a different direction. One direction or another please know you are great and it’s always a pleasure to read your work.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, my friend.
Hey, Charlie. I’ve missed out on a lot of reading. A lot. This was a pleasure to read. Missed your cryptic orations very much. This is such an amazing set of lines to come back to
Thank you Watt.
This poem was a complete 180 of a writing topic. I needed a change shift from my usual type of experimentation. 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed this honest writing of mine.
I got a new poem posted today. 🙂 Hope you stop by. 🙂
Hey, my friend. It’s George, editor of The Collidescope. If you have more poetry like these, we would love to consider it for publication. Lots of great lines here, including “famine is a Pope Crocodile masturbator.” I can appreciate your other poems as well but this one out of the handful I read had a more digestible tone/flow to it, at least for my tastes. But keep doing what you’re doing. You have vision!
Thank you George for responding back.
I believe I do have some poems related to this one. I’ll have to find them. As for the other poems you’ve read. Their all cut up poems. I’m heavily influence by the cut up technique ‘William S. Burroughs’. That’s why those other poems sound different. 🙂