Ennui
Instructions for a tone-deaf feeling
The world is no longer a stage, now merely a short-circuited catatonic circus.
Mouths move at a million macro expressions to what end? We all kiss the same square-shaped Reaper lips, zipping full circle at vertiginous speed toward some "cycle of life."
Magniloquent faces in soporific spaces — sleep now, they're blind anyway— maneuver mundanity like it's second nature. Seldom seeing = never believing.
Ceding control is a banquet of coercion for hunger pangs of disillusioned and destitute prodigals. Sociopathy is opportunity dressed in idiopathy.
And it can be yours...
Fasten on a new face and be anybody you want. Deceiving dulls the hollow core devoid of philosophical prattle, so hold your nerve and elevate from enervation with metafictional action.
It's the only mimesis left. Watch as righteous comeuppance drops from cascades of civic (chain reaction) gullibility. Panoply people fall for anything.
Coif your hair to one sharpened side like a flicker-switch "ON" button, for today you're buttering their bread, and tomorrow?
You'll be seasoning them for a final fucking supper.
Feign love, forge false friendships, sow empathy in the shadowlands. Hell, sew sheaths of calculating modus operandi deception to FEEL.
Something ¿¿¿
Anything ¿¿¿
Nor nothing at all bests ennui.
(c) Edward Swafford 2026
***TITLE IMAGE URL.
About the Creator
Edward Swafford
Hello! I'm an Australian writer, copywriter, and healthcare professional. I've written on Medium for over two years and also run Black Coffee Creative on Substack (over 900 subscribers).
Edgy syntax is my bailiwick.
Keep reading
More stories from Edward Swafford and writers in Poets and other communities.
Comments (4)
Who comes up with "Magniloquent faces in soporific spaces" except you? I've found myself migrating toward simpler language in my writing, and it's great to see someone writing so well going in the opposite direction. Really enjoyed this piece. Great job.
You did it again, Edward! Vocabularly galore, super awesome images, the entire package!🌹🪄 I like to pick out a favorite line when I comment, and this one kept enticing my eyes to visit and visit again: " Sociopathy is opportunity dressed in idiopathy.
You have a real gift for jagged, rhythmic prose. It feels like a fever dream filtered through a cyberpunk lens.
This is wonderful! Love the vocabulary on show here especially, really effective