Mad World

A welcome sight the lights ahead - like misty globules on ink black foam The billboard elicits a sense of foreboding - Welcome to the Midnight Bazaar A lack luster moon adds to the mystery – nervously I enter to ask my way home A familiar song plays in the somewhere, the name eludes me - how bizarre Somberly dressed people scurry past- eyes focused on illuminated screens Refusing contact, shoving past rudely as I ask where this place would be One of them in riddles tells me - this is home - the place to be it seems I wonder if the scales of reality have tipped in favor of insanity A stall arouses my curiosity and I look as a butcher of sorts places Bleeding hearts getting desired effect - starts a pushing jostling frenzy Uninterested in the clowns on stilts with their painted morbid faces Children walk with sullen looks - expressionless eyes that fail to see Crowds clamor to buy sea food - how absurd - especially as a smell of decay prevails Fresh produce on sale with dyed color bleeding and truffles of mud is there something amiss A man wanders around with passports on offer - Buy yourself a Life - his sign displays Relief at last - a stall with books and maps – here is my escape from this tainted Abyss This God forsaken place is not where I wish to stay And I must strive to leave it before the light of day An exorbitant sum I pay eager to escape his cloying breath, his black toothed smile A commotion at the far end - some sort of bidding - curiously I venture courage giving me wings A sign proclaims ‘Souls For Sale’- in rage I scream ‘you cannot sell souls - This is so Vile ‘ Dark soulless eyes in chalk white faces – Bore right through me – Look right through me I run screaming, falling, clawing the map that shows all roads lead back to this Hell - I scream Waking myself - knowing the name of that song still in my head - Shaking from this macabre dream Footnote: This was not meant to be a pretty poem. It exaggerates the state of a world that has seemingly lost its focus and empathy. Let's not let this happen Take a bit of Dean Kontz, Stephen King and the unnatural things going on with food enhancements and you have the stage set for a macabre nightmare!