Not Listening

Like some random nucleus
Always on, yet always off
And constantly surrounded
So live my thoughts
Inside of a shell
99% empty.

Nods indicate comprehension
But mine is a world of huh? and eh?
Like the lipid covered cell
Operating on selfish chemical interests
So live my thoughts
Waiting for sexy
Imprisoned in fat thickness
Inanimate in jelly.

When curiosity is piqued
Or the underbelly of my humour exposed
Or the dark edge of reality is apparent
My shell discharges, the fat folds
Select notions then pass over
And into the cavity
Where my brain resides.

Simple daily details
Painful memories
Important instructions
(uninteresting trifles)
Insincere praise
All bounce
Like radioactive decay
Off the shielded lead garrison,
The force field that is my skull.

Yes, my ears work
My eyes see
Not through this mist
Never in this dearth of interesting,
How could it in this green cloud of self regard?

So I muse
In a world of coulda, shoulda, woulda
In a fog of impracticality
Losing the games and races, Failing the drills
While you pull bravely and faultlessly ahead.

2008