The Power of Suggestion

The Power of Suggestion

The bevy of breath used to push air

Over poised vocal chords

Swollen with well-meaning well-wishing

Has filled my ear canal spilling over and seeping through

Sand bags lined to quell the whelming flood.

Every unique intimation, inclination, or indication

Billows like a storm-forming cloud

Filling with the condensation of contemplations

Hanging heavier with every consideration

Until drops of precipitation fall and flood one’s soul.

“I had just one thought.”

“I thought I’d mention…”

“Did you guys ever consider…”

“I was wondering about…”

“One thing I noticed…”

Sometimes these thoughts come in the form of clues,

Clever innuendos or hypothetical wonderments

Attempting to disguise their opinions (still feels like lipstick on a pig)

Other times the ideas are bold and boisterous

No hunches or notions, these are cold, hard observations

Meant to plant expectations to provoke modifications.

Recommendations and submissions draw blood

(Death by a thousand paper cuts) 

No swords draw, just plowshares

Spears forged into pruning hooks

Negotiation through sanctions

No missiles, just withheld resources

Meant to squeeze you into submission.

Does it ever occur to people that their thought

Joins a symphony of signals, a cacophony of musings?

Where a voice becomes noise, not invalid alone

But invalidated by the echo chambers of reverb

Bouncing off the window panes of the brain

causing strain, then drain, then pain.

(pain in the neck to pain in the butt)

Passive pain packs a punch. 

Which is the subversive power of suggestion.

I long for heaven if only to be free of people’s disparate ideas.

The presence of God and absence of suggested changes.

That sounds celestial.