Breaking News

In breaking news, the existential explorer,
Has abandoned his solitary quest,
After lonely days and lonely nights,
Searching for the truth without rest.

He traversed the caverns of his mind,
Climbed the cerebral cliffs,
Navigated the neural networks,
Peered down into the abyss.

He heard the silent music call,
From the hidden castle of his soul,
But the walls were too imposing,
The waters of the moat too cold.

He raised the white flag yesterday,
Called off the search for meaning,
And reached, as we knew he would,
For the blind temptation of sleeping –

In the pleasure-pool of candy cane,
In the dancehalls of surrender,
In the strobe lights of distraction,
In the aisles of the confectionary vendor.

In the nightlife of forgetfulness,
In the hazy alarm of dawn,
In the mid-afternoon ingestion,
Of pre-packaged films of porn.

In the resigned chanting for salvation,
In the downing of shots of rum,
In the embrace of laneway women,
In being immersed in theme-park fun.

He said the darkness nearly broke him,
That it had dented his hard drive,
Bugged the internal software,
Frozen the will to survive.

For on the lightless path beyond the world,
He claimed he heard the cosmic yawn,
And now desired only to turn his mind,
From the interplanetary cold.

And so he chose to put a layer,
Between his mind and the naked truth,
A glowing, glaring aerosphere,
To dazzle his empty booth.

He asked that the eternal ticker,
Henceforth tell him what to do,
For without the news he was so confused,
And feared what the darkness might do.

He begged for the candy in the end,
Like even the righteous come to do,
Said he couldn’t live without the colour,
Though it felt not entirely true.

So let us pay tribute to his brave,
If futile endeavour,
And welcome him back warmly,
To the glistening pool of pleasure.