Alienists

~ Cakeordeath

Blue Birds in the Tree-Scottie Wilson ca 1960

Sometimes I am overcome with the suspicion
That I am a stranger on this earth
Descended from a peripheral order of beings
An alien on this planet come from a distant star,
Faraway galaxy, parallax dimension
Some shape of a castaway, convict or changeling
Perhaps just a forgetful idler who slept passed their stop
And shuffled off at the end of the line

But the trick is to be at ease

Of course I have on occasion demanded to see the manager
But that was met with shrugs and sighs conveying
Studied confusion, blank indifference or downright hostility
Nobody seemed to know anything and cared even less
Initially I thought well what is the point of them?
But maybe they were feigning ignorance
Covering their tracks, keeping secrets, hiding truths
About myself however banal they turned out to be

Surely you realise that this is not the way to go about things
I think we may have a situation
You are clearly not at ease with yourself and your surroundings

Surrounded by screens bombarded by images and text
Deluged with data indices statistics and factoids
Which I passively absorbed hoping to later sift and sort
Through the theories ideologies conspiracies and revelations
Perhaps somewhere in this sewer of misinformation
I can decipher a message from a distant dimension
A faraway star, a parallex galaxy my lost
Home that I fell from those forgotten aeons ago

You know we have ways of making you feel at ease
And you have, despite our repeated warnings
Persisted in persisting
You leave us no choice so…
You are at ease
You are at ease in yourself and your surroundings
You are at ease
You are at ease in yourself
You are at ease in your surroundings
You are at ease
You are at ease in yourself and your surroundings
You are at ease in yourself
You will be what we want you to be
Feel what we want you to feel
Say what we want you to say
Think what we want you to think
Be what we want you to be
You are now at ease in yourself and your surroundings


As long as I do not remember certain moments
Incidences or sensations that elicit strong reactions
Then I will be alright, I will be at ease with myself
I doubt it ever happened that I shot my cuffs,
Lifted my finger signaling for you to come over,
Bend over my knee and lift up your skirt
That only happened in my non-existent home
Vanished star, imploded galaxy, voided dimension

They have promised me that when I feel completely
At ease in myself and my surroundings
That I will be granted a vision of the birds of paradise
Descending down from the vast unreachable heavens
Onto these somnolent suburban streets and gardens
Setting hearts and minds ablaze with motion and colour
To carry us away toward a richer more vibrant realm
A distant galaxy, faraway dimension, parallax star.

29 thoughts on “Alienists”

    1. But that is our tragedy… we can never just be. I cannot be like my cat, who as long as she isn’t hungry or threatened just is. We can become inhuman but she can never be infeline (which isn’t even a word). Thank you, good to be back writing, I think.

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  4. Doesn’t it just feel this way? That we have suddenly been dropped into an alien world – a shabby half assed world. And whose agents then attempt to hypnotize you. This is just perfect. Glad you are writing again Mr Cake!

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      1. I thought it was in keeping with the poem but obviously not. I must have misunderstood your poem. I’ll leave my comment cryptic – sometimes it’s not worth trying to explain myself. Great poem though.

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  6. Dear Mr Cake, where have you been these last few months? I think we are a kindred spirit your poem expresses the times that we find ourselves living in. Wonderful poem, keep on writing.

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      1. I lost your e-mail. If you still have mine, send me one and I’ll get back to you. All well here and we are not too badly off, in spite of Covid. Lots of tings happened since we last talked. All best wishes,
        Roger.

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      1. Same here – though you would think with more time spent at home, it would push me to get in gear and write more. I’ve been doing well, I’m very lucky to be able to work from home and that I’ve been able to keep my job. I’ve immersed myself in noir – both literature and watching classic films noir, studying the genre in order to write a poetry collection.

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