by M. Joseph Boehler

everything is—and is not.

in the present moment we hover between madness and sanity,

strangers to ourselves.

we are gears turning in a relentless machine,

grinding against foundations already in ruin.

our attempts to grasp something tangible become caught,

in choices that splinter our identities.

imagination frays at the edges,

trembling along the boarder of who we are,

daring us to consider what we might become.

reflections warp, thoughts dramatize,

each fragment tied to a fragile certainty.

all of us are pushed, pulled, driven toward insanity;

the steady grind of conformity dulls what we might truly attain.

humanity's progress sputters, and ideas slip away,

hidden by the fear to even try.

we become unbalanced, emotionally haunted:

trembling, spinning edges of rusted consciousness,

limiting our potential to experience and evolve.

our biology nudges, our minds manipulate,

and we move forward with the ignored awareness,

of our limited time.

—

Author's Note: This piece conveys the unsettling sensation of living in a world that feels both vibrantly alive and decaying at once. In it, we are gears trapped in an endless machine, grinding against foundations already in ruin, while our imaginations fray at the edges. Conformity and the fear of acting differently smother ideas, often leaving us feeling displaced and haunted by a rusted awareness of our limited time. I aimed to make the paradox "everything is—and is not" vivid and immediate, capturing the tension between who we are and who we yearn to become.