Cynic's Sermon

 

When did you last smile at someone on the street without being made to feel crazy and beneath contempt? Let’s not pretend; the average UK city is not a friendly place to be and while I’ve never had a gun pulled on me, I’m still aware there’s plenty of them in Coventry, and that mindlessly violent people outnumber the police

so what’s safe?

Safe is something you crack.

What’s crack?

Crack is something your mates are on.

What are mates?

Mates are people you surround yourself with so you can kid on you’re not alone.

What’s alone?

A loan is something you can’t afford because you’re overtaxed to pay for rehab because all your mates are on crack

…remember?

Oh yeah.

Yeah. We’ve learnt a valuable lesson.

What’s a lesson?

All those hours of education you spent messin’ and not paying attention, busy flexing your developin’ lack of information retention muscles and slack chewing gum jaw feeling sore because you were sure you’d never soar and planning to score some draw or maybe something more to distract from the roar of looming failure rushing towards ya like a dooming future crushing you under its disappointment.

What’s disappointment?

Disappointment is those GCSEs you didn’t achieve when if you’d studied you could have had at least Cs and the three babies balanced on your knees at eighteen and the endless cycle of Steves and Lees who leave when the rotundity of your belly starts to increase while those who are free to do as they please and call themselves your friends come round less and less because they’re too busy getting legless in the warm Bacardi breeze.

Disappointment is when expectations sneak out the back door without even leaving a note.

What’s expectation?

Expectations are what you thought life owed you but it turns out you owe life so it sends the bailiffs round and they take all the hope you ever owned away; expectation is the debt you owe to yourself, the only one you’re obliged to pay and it’s okay to ask for help but at the end of the day the consequences of your actions are yours to face, so take precautions when you play and take protection if you can’t say no because careless sex and success are not the best of bedfellows. Think ahead a little, look out below and before you leap because we reap the harvests we’ve sowed. Carry your inner child in your pocket like a Dictaphone, a record of the dreams you’re owed, because I know you once believed in the importance of happiness yet you let ignorance influence and caress fate until it was too late…and I so nearly followed…but whatever s**t life might have dealt cannot be allowed to drown down all of a person’s tomorrows.

 

The early bird catches the worm

but the second mouse gets the cheese;

all those mistakes you began to make,

others can learn from at least.

Author's Note

I'll appreciate any improvements for suggestion on this one; there are places where it doesn't seem to flow right. Thanks.

Reviews

[F. Nazarov]

"because I know you once believed in the importance of happiness yet you let ignorance influence and caress fate until it was too late�and I so nearly followed�but whatever s**t life might have dealt cannot be allowed to drown down all of a person's tomorrows.


The early bird catches the worm
but the second mouse gets the cheese;
all those mistakes you began to make,
others can learn from at least."

Spec-friggin-tacular.
The friggin amazingness of the piece totally drowns out any places of
unflowlyness. Look I'm so amazed, I'm not even using proper words.
What a piece of work. It's something most people wouldn't
even think about, but they are all linked together. It's like a perfect
example of different thoughts swimming in and out of each other.
Excellent :D

[Fabian G. Franklin]

Whew, I thought you were going to go all cynical on Bacardi there for a sec. lol Great stuff here, a fun read even if none of your mates are on crack.

[Patrick Paul]

I liked this piece alot mr. boylan.. like your other comments say im kind of jealous that i didnt think of it myself. i was wondering though the last two paragraph how you describe that people make mistakes so others hopefully wont. do you ever wonder that the people who didnt make them appreciated the person who made them. Sometimes flaws are more important and beautiful than turning into a diamond. It makes life genuie and real. anyways i will stop blabbering
great piece
patrick

[Rain]

I seldom notice flow, I look at orginality and creativity. This had both of those. Rain..

[Anthony Morningstar]

Wow holy s**t I leave for like however long and haven't writen since about the time I left and this where your at now.

It would take me a while to find fault in this or where it could be smoothed over but not dulled.

[Hedra Helix]

BTW
come visit me in Hawaii, lets write

[Hedra Helix]

Holey crap but i forgot how you serve it!

Damn you, wow.


Flow, brain, change, surprise- all the good s**t laid ouuuut!!

- tight -

[Alice]

You have no idea how much I wish I'd written this. It's actually eating me alive right now. I think you froze me in my seat with your sharp gaze like Medusa, and for me the flow snakes as smoothly as her hair, I don't think you should change it. The spot on, witty, gritty points are packed in here like sardines in a tin, it's even quicker and smarter than one of Wilde's dialogues and funny as Woody Allen at his most satirical. The "tomorrow" definitely worked for me. I'm still grinning from the tomorrow. Thank you.

[Raef C. Boylan]

By 'tomorrow' I tried to imply future. I thought it worked, but I guess not. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life, and there are loads of tomorrows ahead...that kind of thing.

...no?

[Emily B]

I'm trying hard to be hopeful. If I try hard enough maybe it will make some sort of difference if we figure out what a tomorrow is . . .