Collaborative poetry by @sleepingdingo, @stair71, @troublegummer, @permabloom, @vivchook, @myvogonpoetry, @brudberg

Strange birds are coming into the city.
On the streets, strangers stare or snarl.
An uneasy silence settles in crowded places.
Everyone eases when a child starts to roar.

He’s here, he’s here, the ghost who never leaves,
The shrouded shade who haunts the grief-worn hour,
The ever-present presence in the corner of our eye
Or caught in cracks of doorways as we pass.

The lost are hidden amongst the invisible,
Where cacophony soothes and chaos settles,
Make eye contact at your peril or smile for reward
But don’t get seen, don’t get seen, blend and disappear…

And so we blend, one after the other we do,
Identical granules crushed, then stirred
Into an ugly mug of unbrewed common fear,
Our very life instant, black, unsweetened.

Until. Until a spirited soul decides Enough!
Unbearable paralysis, from surfeit fear
Such sour…