Do you still believe the bullshit
Drilled into you while young and impressionable?
And didn’t know better?
Do you still think people are kind at heart?
Or have you seen they’ll slit your throat
At their earliest convenience?
And when you fall down
Have you accepted most won’t help you up
But leave you to wither and rot
Slamming the door
leaving what remains of your soul
to rot in the cold?
Did you unlearn that you can’t be anything you want?
Did you realize the lottery of birth is a brutal indicator
Of future success
And so much of your life is out of your control?
After all, it’s no coincidence those in the limelight
Mostly come from affluence, is it?
Did you learn society only allows you to be anything
Except yourself?
And did you realize this is why
You feel alone and isolated?
And after life kicked you in the teeth
Dragging you through piss and shit
Did you rationalize it away?
Did you say “God has a plan” or “everything happens for a reason?”
Or did you realize pain and suffering are wetted out
Without rhyme or reason
In a hostile and indifferent cosmos?
And did you contend with the fact that
More often than not
Your endurance of such doesn’t mean a fuckin’ thing?
Because remember
In the end
We all decay
And history licks her lips
And washes us all away
As you grew older
Did you also grow wiser?
What myths did you let wither away?
What did you unlearn today?
Sebastian Vice is the founder of Outcast Press, an indie publication specializing in transgressive fiction and dirty realism. His short fiction and poetry has appeared in Punk Noir Magazine, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Outcast Press, and Terror House Magazine. His flash fiction piece “One Last Good Day” has been nominated for Best of the Net 2021. You can find him on Twitter here.
Sebastian Vice is the founder of Outcast Press, devoted to transgressive fiction and dirty realism. He has short fiction and poetry published in Punk Noir Magazine, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Outcast Press, Terror House Magazine, Bristol Noir, and Misery Tourism. He contributed a chapter to Red Sun Magazine’s forthcoming book The Hell Bound Kids (May 1st, 2022) and writes a regular column called “Notes of a Degenerate Dreamer” over at A Thin Slice of Anxiety. His flash piece “One Last Good Day” was nominated for Best of the Net 2021. His forthcoming poetry book Homo Mortalis: Meditations on Memento Mori will drop April 4th, 2022 through Anxiety Press.
