Poetry

[James]

Grey Scale

They blew smoke-
but there was no fire.
They looked-
but vacancy filled their stares.
They sat coloured In bold.
And underneath? – Stone cold.
They chewed gum-
but nay, no bubbles.
And they were a portrait of the grey-
Amorphous shades
Waiting for favor, and a leash-
No longer connected,
to their necks.

Discussion

[Kev]

James.. I’ve read this several times over the course of the day, slowly coming to understand and interpret it.. I finally landed on it.. I wanted to share my interpretation of it to see what you think..

It’s a portrait of the mass of humanity that has been put to sleep and enslaved.. But deep down in the core of the human soul bubbles the innate desire to be free, and to be let go, to find oneself as the means to do so, while not even being consciously aware of the enslavement.. The desire lives, yet the enslavement is much preferred, perhaps because it’s just easier, and breaking free and self-reflection and self-ownership could be painful..

That’s how I process it through my filters.. Seems obvious in retrospect, but man, I had to dig into this one to get to it.. But that’s just me.. ?

And interesting that these few lines of poetry were this engaging.. So mate, you gonna keep challenging me??.. ?

[James]

Kev! Yes sir you have nailed it most certainly on the head; and thank you for your interpretation its exactly what I was trying to get across here.

The real story to this poem was that I was sitting in my village square watching a family of four on a bench, gaze off into the distance. Some were chewing gum, they were dressed boldly in the colours of mass produced designer wear but on their faces a story of the soul awashed with grey.

[Kev]

Oh lord, that is so freakin’ fantastic how you took an everyday experience and turned it into this.. Brilliant.. And funny thing, I’ve recently found myself being able to read people like never before and see what’s really going on.. Not the surface stuff, or how it appears on the outside, but the undercurrent, the real reality of it.. It’s in the realm of symbolism..

But I love the image of blank stares and gum chewing.. Yep, seen that before.. ?

[Author]

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