than ghost flatulence
Two trust-funded students
argue over political ideals
with no mass behind their
appendix acquired terms
to convey the same weight
words seem to hold when
they've been long lived
before having been spoken
A professor of history
blathers about a past
that died long before
any story was written
and ages before this
expert's astute assessments
of unaccountable accounts
I keep hearing things
in this languished lingo
A single/divorced mother
describes virtuous true love
to her devoted daughter
in a popular TV drama
before briefing her about
the importance of prophylactics
An androgynous amphibian
gives anthropomorphized advice
about staying true to one's self
in the same sort of stilted soliloquy
that an automotive automaton
uses to advise a target audience
about accident insurance options
I can't be too concerned
by all these things I've heard
in this languished lingo
but the things I no longer hear
make the vacuum of silenced space
seem like a soul-sucking abyss
Somewhere beyond the wastelands
of all this languished lingo
the resounding reveries of reality
must still be sung in solipsistic serenity
as individual voices idiosyncratically intone
the words that become more than words alone
when they're declared as words of their own
...and the wind just blows and blows
as words from voices fade in its flow
and even sturdy sounds cease to echo
above a silence no ears will know
Above that other silence all ears hear
comes the screams of an honest fear
as shrieks of some beast moves near
yet some inner voice remains so clear
I'd sooner be insulted and offended
than hear hollowed hearts contented
and lavished in the languished lingo
of some banal or baneful bellow
So speak and sing
the singular sentiments
and solitary statements
vital to your virile voice
and let limp lips lavish
their languished lingo
and lament in limbo
