When is Something Not What it Isn’t?

The answer’s still alive. (existential extrapolations: part five)

Dec 28, 2025

Insecure pedicure
Rhyming in reverse
Get the thing you wanted
And turn it into a curse

Speak to me in symbols
That I’ll recognise as fact
Bigger, rounder numbers
Are no replacement for some tact

I looked for explanations
But they do not go halfway
I missed the other layers
In the other things you say
That’s ok, I didn’t
Grow up in your town
Easier to know I don’t exist
When you’ve never seen me round

The words are right, They make the point
But all inflection’s gone
I singed a simple soliloquy
From beneath the rightful wrong

But that’s not something you can do
To this space and time
Just my imagination
Looking like a contorted mime

Now is not cooperating
Dark forces are at play
Making me write down
All the things I didn’t say

The broken things are broken
The mended things amend
To the lists of social requirements
To which we must pretend

When the mirror sees the mirror
Does it ask who did look first?
If another mirror joins
Do they see it all the worst?
And as the reflections move
Through the cortex of our mind
The only ones seeing anything
Started out as blind

Here’s a shape, with four sides
A circle it is called
I left it with my dog
Now the corners have been mauled

And here’s a glass half full
Hardly worth a meme
Unless you read the job description
And want to join the team

Fake the fake it fakery
And catch it in a jar
Get a stall at the local market
And sell it wide and far
Then add some scented candles
With deception as their smell
But the source must be kept secret
So please promise not to tell

You think that you are made of steel
But a magnet you can’t resist
It draws you in like cigarettes
When you get half pissed

Now everyone’s a fire fighter
Until the smoke turns into flame
And as they run for higher ground
They’re clear who we should blame

For every box of matches
There’s a lighter without gas
And for every righteous brother
A paper bag with cash
And even for the bravest
There’s no escaping fear

And when something’s not what it isn’t?
Things finally become clear

This is Part Five of Existential Extrapolations. You can read Part Four here:

https://substack.com/home/post/p-180578585