In an earlier incarnation, Hayden Veil enjoyed a successful career in software engineering, writing late-night poetry in pursuit of sanity. On 2 February 2020, the world of Hayden Veil changed: Ghosts became real and with its soul laid bare there was no turning back from the perpetual path of poetry.
Mutton and lamb shanks on the
Offing
I stuff my pillow with the leaves of
Destruction
There are whispers of spring and an early
Release
The inspiration from a pair of
Leggings
The stove turned on
High
The flames of fury
Licking
She is my sheep to
Slaughter
Her wickedest laugh
My undoing
Define me not by common measures
See me through the haze of truth
Abandoned and obliterated
Shattered by the awkward pings of life,
Your golden flute swinging
Your silver tongue spinning
Your rustic self squeaking
With the impartiality of a
Cough,
Define me not by common measure
Use me
Abuse me
Or not
I wish I could tell you
Without telling you directly
How much your thump, your whacking of
The hearts of hears;
Your approval beyond the reading of my script,
The forcing of yourself to follow through,
To reveal to me the liking, or otherwise //
Of the written
Of the me
Exposed :/:
& again ######## how much that #######
Means
2
Me
That said , that unsaid, that thought,
& onwards
Alone yet listening
For signs
For answers
Coming
Did you not notice
/* */ My hug
My expression of
/* */ Satisfaction
Like a pick over newly tuned
/*********/ Strings
My fingers walked the walk
In silence
Without trembling
I remained there
With you as your
/*******/ Shivering increased
As you begged for more yet
Asked me to cease
My fingering
My aim to please
//////////////////////////// Ended
1. Only proper writers should write. Only proper artists should make art. Only proper singers should sing. And so on and so forth. Make sure to find a definition of ‘proper’ that excludes you, so that you have to stop. You can propagate this idea by telling others that yes, you are a little bitter, but you know that it was for the best.
2. It doesn’t look very far on the map, you can totally walk. So the temperature is a little different and there may not actually be a path and you’re not sure quite what the stuff marked on the map round there actually means and you may be a little jetlagged by that point, so what?
3. Sometimes the truth hurts. Therefore obviously if something hurts, it must be true. It being possible to find almost any opinion on the internet if you look hard enough, you should show your commitment to the truth by seeking out whatever hurts most and affording it special time and attention.
4. The best cure for unrequited love is to just do what that guy did in that romantic comedy to win the heart of the girl who didn’t seem so into him. That will totally work.
5. Show you are a good-natured, easy to get on with person by not having wants, boundaries or negative emotions. The best people are never upset or angry about anything.
6. Show your commitment to equality by inviting everyone to everything. In particular, you should always strive to invite equal numbers of people who like quiet activities and those who prefer loud ones, people you have been warned about and the people who warned you about them, and those who have had a bad breakup and their exes.
7. If someone asks politely for something, you should give it to them, no matter what it is.
8. When someone is trying something for the first time it is important to be completely appreciative and supportive of their efforts, to not criticise and, if the activity just so happens to be barbecuing chicken, to eat the pink bits and cross your fingers.
and through her hollow lense I saw the world / not as reality bound for infinity / but as infidelity permanently unbound / out of darkness the tears froze / I stood there watching / I stood there being watched as the fires scorched the earth / a heart melted then and there / another year had passed / how many more to come / how many more before we had to say goodbye
I sought redemption for errors made, for
excessive application of truth foretold.
The hypocrisy of the slicing God, the dicing
God, the slithering worm across our barren
lands. The mortal tales of merry men seeking
their ultimate ends. Before them an unobtainable
truth, a questionable truth yet unspoken all
the same.
I sought redemption for errors made, for
lacking the courage of expression; in the now and
every life I ever had endured.
The burning cross high above, the embers of
children playing; their scars, left by those
unwanting and unloving, the bound and the
unreleased, the tokens we commonly denounce
as parents.
I sought redemption for errors made, I took the
stage and made my case, til death brought the
curtains down.
