Tag Archives: Shame

a joke is born

more bad poetry
& scribbles in the margins
ready the tissues
cue the gothic orchestra
sackcloth, keening & ashes

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025

hysteria

fie, oh fie for shame
god neglects to dry the tears
of fae, fie for shame

fain would fae grow tall
with all that dotage entail
when time doth reap all
the envigored life assail
turneth youth to rufous grail

fie, oh fie for shame
that void would swallow all tears
of fae, fie we fall

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024

wellness check

i fain would draw this blue fog
but have only the red ink of shame
it burns through my sullen veins

i fain would deface my skin
but it’s like a brittle parchment
it crumbles ‘neath needle’s acerb touch

i fain would drown them all in bile
but hide behind what they want of me
my head pulses like a tumour

i fain would discard my failed life
but angst has drained resolve from my bones
i wait, days full up with hospital pudding

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023

brain cancer

i shall not be a burden
i shall not forget to pray
i shall be an inspiration
i shall die in the right way

for those that plead the blood
do nothing but think they’re helping
i metastasise in compliance
in deference to the eyes that will

i shall not be a burden
i shall not say god is cruel
i shall be a demonstration
i shall die in the right way

for those that invoke the name
do nothing but think they’re helping
i catastrophise in silence
in deference to the eyes that won’t

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023

what would freud say?

i woke up with the thought
that the letter ‘o’
is a death mask
and that the pathless one
cannot claim me
without it

so, i lay there and looked
at a spot of light
on the ceiling
then did i turn my head
to the window’s
vacant yawn

gazed i through that dark glass
all silent and grim
lo, i shivered
awaiting a fresh hell
from the pit ‘neath
that dank earth

an answer came to me…
if the pit is ‘o’
gaping for me
and the death mask is ‘o’
then needs must they
add to two

i melded the two ‘o’s
infinity ‘fuck’
i girded it
thrust in the pathless face
my loins to mouth
and its shame

then did i fall asleep
like a baby does
with the feeling
of sweet satisfaction
a slaked ‘amen’
so saintly

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2021