semblance

semblance

displayed as swinging hams,

we are ruddy,

over-exposed;

we have sneak filtered,

failed love cropped

from the borders

a dead gaze,

neatly doctored

to a shiny glaze

the aspect gapes, we

suspended from hangers

built from nocturnal omissions,

clad in wine thread tapestries

we present our best side;

too hollow

to be discerning anymore

isolation,

has become cavernous

prevents us

from realising what we’ve shown –

palpable in predictable likes

dislikes, carefully spooled –

how the light of hope,

easily fooled, now

so lastingly blown

insular screens

force a sociopathic endgame;

swipe right

now automatic,

stoked by the panic attack

that swipe left can expire

in nights layered in thumbnails,

we push our portraits out –

cloaked in stoic dark,

in protection against

glimpsing our reflection,

that pale, red-eyed

bloated death-mask

we cannot filter