“Hold me #tight, my love.”
“Arjun, if you touch me…”
“Swapna, how are we going to be Romeo and Juliet with such an attitude?”
“Why did Ma’am cast us? By the way, your mouth stinks.”
“Vivien as Scarlett said the same to Clark as Rhett. That’s a part of every love story.”
#vss365
if I could #draw
will it be you on canvas
or some sight i see without you
will it be the battle of the sublime
i am sure it will be you
if i could draw
i will wish for no such talent
how can i put you on canvas
when all that we did can't be there
#vss365
I said I could imagine
What you went through.
If I had kept my mouth shut
Our love would have lasted.
"Kids, write a poem with the prompt #headphones."
"You joking?"
"Arjun?"
"Nothing, ma'am. Here it is."
"Already?
#Roused by hip hop beats
From the #headphones she gave me,
Aroused forever.
This isn't kid stuff."
"That is Swapna's."
"Et tu, Swapna!"
#vss365
#haikufeels
I know what you want me to say
But if I curry favour with you,
Will you want me?
I know the fights I shouldn't fight
But if I am not tilting at #windmills,
Would I be this me?
I know I should tell our story
But if I come clean,
What's behind the smoke and mirrors?
#vss365
"Arjun, why have you described gender equality as a #chore?"
"Ma'am, it is a tedious but necessary task."
"Tedious?"
"It's tough to eradicate love."
"Swapna, help me."
"He thinks GE allows one to look at everyone with total disinterest."
"So necessary."
"Shut up, Arjun!"
#vss365
"The steamy strong macho on #horse with milky lace."
"S, we are in the barista next to Club Femme."
"Not there?"
"The club decided it was #courting disaster with you after too many."
"I'm knackered, A."
"One strong #mocha with rose, less steamed milk, for her, plz."
#vss365
when did I stop writing
was it when you forgot to pretend to read
or was I too eager for eyeball and applause
of those I can't say they feign interest
or was it when I realized
I had written the same old stuff
again and again
and I had to hear you say stop
or was it when I sat still and alone
lost in a beautiful nowhere without you
and stared at all that I should write about
all that I will never write about without you
We have the custom of keeping bouncers at the wedding hall. Affairs made in heaven need protection. We also believe one should have a #scrape with one's own future. I went to the altar with a black eye and scraped privates. My family’s bouncer, not hers, got me knotted.
#vss365
Her voice, dark and #foreboding, "In a world where love and company are outdated, the old will yield place to sati and cannibalism and..."
"Wake up! You were talking in your sleep."
"What did I say?"
"Nothing new. Get ready for breakfast. Your bestie is on the table."
#vss365
"That old lecher should be shot."
"One, he is my age. Two, I like his appreciative look."
"I don’t."
"Guess we can’t tell him to look at me and not at you."
"He should not look at any lady."
"Ok, sis. He shouldn't belly crawl through #brambles to do that."
#vss365
In a book by Coelho, there's this line about two people meeting and how the past and future become irrelevant.
When I met her 4 times in 24 hours, that's how it felt!
As we #bimbled over life's cliffs, I missed 4 chances to get rid of her guy.
The book ignored that!
#vss365
I write stories because of my fear of storytellers. No one read stories to me at night. I don't belong to that lot. Ramu, the milkman, was our storyteller. Kids who don't like stories #nettle me, he said. He was hanged in '83. Cries of the kids he killed just won't die.
#vss365
It's the much-hyphenated lady that made me realise I've a doppelgänger.
Yes, she-who-thinks-she-is-from-another-galaxy-and-i-don’t-belong-to-stars-that-#twinkle.
She sent word through my friend I shouldn’t follow her around.
Ha! As if I would.
But, he has good taste.
#vss365
I've joined an AI-enabled dating site.
Along with the profile and photo, one gets details of how the date will progress and the cost involved.
It has a few glitches.
I wanted one in 'full bloom'. Got one with 'dull #gloop' runs. She asked for 'TD&H with TLC'. Got me.
#vss365
"You two were like brothers. What happened?"
I shrugged. Took a piece of her #plum cake. Keeping him alive.
"Was it because of some girl?"
I nodded. A convenient lie.
The end was gradual, expected, not even bitter. An unequal balance that gave way to a lost meaning.
#vss365
Sorry. I had to use a scene from an old short story of mine for this.
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2017/12/she-went.html
Love poems and I have a problem.
Circa 20th century: tried rhyme,
This male
On this vale
Braving gale
Loves you, my girl.
21st century: tried more syllables,
#Scrumptious effervescent one,
With such protuberances
And subliminal tumescence,
I'm in multisyllabic maze.
#vss365
Oh!
How do I tell her
I'm #heartbroken without her,
Euphoric with her?
#haikufeels
#haiku #senryu ?
She founded The #Penultimate Philosophy.
Search for it. You will get zero hits. Vestiges of it can be found in the Tang Ping culture of China. But, it went beyond 'lying flat'.
It was anathema to governments and corporations.
She was erased--the ultimate recognition.
#vss365
Today, at Freud's house, I peeped through a window. Freud was lying on a couch. I was in an armchair. Freud talked about his dreams of pen, paper and a peeping Tom called I.
"Do the #psychoanalysis of that," he said.
"A pen is a pen, most often, paper too, but not I."
#vss365
"Honey, be my lover."
Those were my last words.
Not as good as Rosebud
Or Birdie-num-num, I agree.
This was with a lover
On top of the Himalayas.
Google translate got it wrong,
"Honeybee, go lower."
But then, she was my kind
And used her pet #bee on me.
#vss365
not #poetry
"You don’t have much time," the doc's words echoed in his head.
He looked at his notebook.
Love, charity, altruism, bucket list of fun things...
OR
Break all rules (in that old life, not this #eviscerated one)-drinking, escorts, gambling...
"No-brainer!" he wrote.
#vss365
Why didn't I paint the town red?
Why did I stick to the shadows?
I could blame you, as usual.
Or my invisibility.
Love too had/has the same problem.
The fickle ménage of us, you and I.
#poetry ?
The child and the dreams
Leave a scared defeated man,
With his true demons.
With innocence gone
And the evil he allowed,
Death will not free him.
With no tomorrow,
There's no child to dream today
Of a past erased.
#poetry #haiku #senryu ?
Why are you angry
Only on days the news suits that?
Forgetful, aren't you?
#poetry #haiku #senryu ?
Just one of those moments
You call a waste of time,
Or some other advice
To fall on my deaf ears,
As I look out and see
The one I knew right there,
And yes, I thought of sex
And yes, I felt I should
Not waste my time thinking
Of stuff you will approve.
#poetry ?
#travelogue
When did my friend
Mad Havan start
Splitting names,
Was it after he married
Lax Mi or when he fell
In love with Swap Na,
His first born
Suffered most-
F. #Oodles S.,
The second
Was a riddle-
Sans Ex,
My godchild A. R. Jun
Should have been
De Vil In Car Nate.
#vss365
Why am I smiling
In this Golden Age,
When every #community is
Happy and crazy
With thoughts
So sick,
I think of her breast
In this Darkest Hour,
When the butcher is
Me and you and all
With knife
Hacking.
#vss365
Racing on the highway,
With thoughts of the end
And a careless prayer
To a #deaf forsaken god,
She came to me then,
A message in the clouds
Floating in the azure sea,
In the code of vague hope,
"We are not here,
For the whole story,
We were there,
That is enough."
#vss365
"Why are you in the doghouse today?"
"I was at my poetic best."
"Ah!"
"Spouses are like #termites,
Deep within they conspire,
Before one realizes,
Thou art premature dust."
"And, unto doghouse thou returnest."
"hA!"
#vss365
After our first swapping party, she was happy and I wasn’t.
Second time, we were both in heaven. Or hell. Whichever is more wicked.
Then, there was that undercover priest who said we are evil to swap souls. Till he swapped his, that of a killer, for a #feminist soul.
#vss365
If my dreams of love and happiness
Had come true,
I would have wondered why fantasies
Were usual.
It’s not that the strange and perplexing
Are my thing,
It’s tiring to be a #resilient
Common bore.
#vss365
The ruler shouts “#Rebellion!”
On top of new highways.
They come and they go,
Common man treads the old road,
Hoping change will wait.
#vss365
(I am in my old haunts at Panjim. Around noon, to escape from the rain, I waited in Mr. Baker. Lovely snacks, tea and a lady owner who reminded me of a favourite teacher. Well, she didn’t say, “Arjun, out!”)
They forced the parole on me.
Too comfortable with solitary,
Crappy food and torture
And self-annihilation-
That’s my crime these days.
Be out there (won’t I be alone?),
Have #brownie and beer at ten,
Be a human, they say-
That’s cruel, I tell you.
But I’ve to go.
#vss365
Why do I say #cheers
When everyone's gone and
the glasses are empty?
Why can't I find love
When I inspire the lovely
lady to be lack of time?
Why do I ask questions
When there's no one to
reply with a question?
#vss365
When you read these words,
Do you know I think about you
Thinking about me?
Oh don’t complain, my dear,
Can’t we give each other
A fantasy or a nightmare?
Let’s not be fidgety curious strangers,
Let's not be yawning friends
Or lovers staring at the #flower on wallpaper.
#vss365
“Kids, tell me the significance of the line ‘to #be or not to be’. Swapna?”
“In one line we have existential absurdity, meaninglessness, nihilism and a contradiction of Parmenides…”
“Bah! Shakespeare is lost for words. Like when a singer goes lalala…”
“Arjun! Out!”
#vss365
Are you on the #raft?
Or am I?
With no shore close,
With hell so near,
Does it matter?
Do not stare so.
I too won't.
Look at the happy photo
Not the tired #eyes,
There's no #duality here.
Just dreary writing
With someone's rules.
It matters.
It does not.
#vss365
(weary eyes of an ancestor who tried to change the rules)
Found an old notebook during spring cleaning.
Pages filled with columns of pluses/minuses. Decisions of #boundless life. Susan vs Swathi, Arun vs Kris, Siemens vs Samsung...
Found her notebook too. Me vs Somebody.
Where did I put them in the spring cleaning of '03?
#vss365
(1991)
"Her bloodstained lips trembled, lucky #breath to kiss her tender;
Her face rests on a step, flesh on stone, warmth on cold-
The rivulet of tears trickled till they dropped on her heaving bosom,
The unfelt cold, for her heart seemed afire with passions too fiery."
#vss365
(1999)
Trust these words no more,
my dear. Without you,
merely to kill time,
strangely I decay.
Alone
with sense of reflections
that is marred by #breath,
wishing it were not so
but then, there is nothing.
#vss365
(Let me not do postmortem on that decade.)
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2009/07/his-story-searching-and-finding-1991.html
According to my family curse, men leading carefree lives mess it up in middle-age with matrimony.
Some seem married to the #one they marry, some to the one they did not.
All are doubly-cursed with fidelity and virility, rewarded with success and stability till death.
#vss365
Life is still topsy-turvy and tiring (is that alliteration?) and I had to borrow from an old short story of mine or collection of notes (it could be a part of my autobiography if it seems untrue).
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2018/10/twice-bitten-once-shy.html
Wronged at times, cynical always,
flirting with lonely hopeless #void,
forsaking advice,
threatening surety,
fondling thrill,
facing danger,
Danger, where i am untaught,
that’s the source of my life,
not love nor victory nor respect,
Interest, that selfish desire.
#vss365
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2010/01/seeking.html
My lady, forgive this simple mind
For conjuring often used sights.
Is old love bad love? I wish I knew.
Material truths can be unkind.
Let fantasies make paupers knights.
Fantasies or #love? I wish I knew.
#vss365
(This was part of a wedding proposal. Yikes! Folly of youth!)
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2009/06/proposal-3-2001.html
"You are loony."
"I am #moonstruck."
"Semantics!"
"I love you."
"That proves it."
"But I do."
"You hate my folks."
"I do."
"You hate everything I do."
"Do I?"
"You have no clue about love."
"That's true."
"So, I am right."
"No, that's how it is when one is in love."
#vss365
(Don't ask me if I have any clue about what I have written! Total brain-fade mode.)
Love kept me away, my dear #vss365 friends.
THE LADY even cooked for me. "Steamed rice-coconut sandwich cake, black chickpeas in fiery coconut gravy, batter-fried ripe plantain, oeuf dur avec sel et poivre and coffee!”
I had to #speak then.
"This has to end."
To be with you.
Why do we say goodbye
When we could be happy
Together forever...
Why do we chase dreams
Of a billboard life
Discard what we have...
Why did we destroy all
A #diary entry now
Fading like sweet goodbye...
#vss365
I got divorced because I am a faithful #chronicler of love. She found the box with all my writing about you and our love. I could have tried to explain that you are just a ghost.
But, how can one explain that love is all about accepting the ghosts in another's life?
#vss365
Is this the Monsoon?
Or a straying depression?
Let me not #yawp now.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
#Monsoon ?
At the Erotica Convention, it was decided the Hoi Polloi Union should be compensated by the Billionaires Union.
Our #yawp over every sweaty bed, "Forget s*x, do we get the time, space and company? The bills have it so easy!"
We will get $6.50 per month not to write.
#vss365
"As a #prize from seniors to juniors before they leave, their wisdom. Who is your role model? Arjun?"
"My mother."
"Very good. Swapna?"
"Don’t believe in role models. Appreciate decency. Learn from the stupidity of the same one too."
"Enough, Swapna!"
"Heehee"
"Feku!"
#vss365
"Oh god! What do You #achieve by killing 260 or more in a train accident?"
"Am I responsible for that?"
"What about the little kids who die every day?"
"Am I responsible for that?"
"Why do You keep some creeps alive?"
"Is there another dumping ground for those?"
#vss365
My dear #vss365 pals, I am terribly sorry for not reading your writing regularly.
Excuses:
a. Heat and insomnia
b. Household work
c. Creeps who won't give regular water supply.
d. Etc. etc. etc.
Cya, take care.
"Sir, your gf told me to tell you K-A-T-H-A-L."
"Which one?"
"Manju."
"I call both that. If it's Manjula, it's Tamil for love. A mating call."
"How sweet."
"If it's Manjul, then it's Hindi for jackfruit, a non-veg sub, warning in-laws are visiting."
"Err...#bittersweet."
#vss365
Moral of the story: Do not have friends with similar names.
Did you think love involves altruism?
Guess you hoped quid pro quo is one-sided.
#Amble along, my sweet love,
(Put in the poetic stuff),
Hate needs just one,
Not the good stuff.
Think about me, and I
Might think about you
When the mirror shows
Anything but me.
#vss365
If your words won’t make me wince,
Rest assured it’s time wasted,
Why do you bother to speak
When it’s small talk sans questions,
#Fell new plague is Disinterest,
That’s the Grim Reaper’s nickname.
#vss365
"Arjun, #picturesque doesn't mean risque picture."
"Oh, Swapna! I'm brain-dead."
"That's not something new."
"But, it is this time."
"How?"
"When I look at Rodin's 'The Kiss', I hear them say, "Ohmigawd, do we have to be this close?", "It's so hot."
When the picturesque
Inspires man to say the truth,
It's truly sublime."
"You are really sick."
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
With insomnia,
And a #wistful prayer
For a dream,
I prepare.
Used to defeat
Whenever I bare myself,
I do it again,
Death wish it could be,
A life wasted searching
For the one that's not there.
Didn't the Idiot once say
It's the hunt that matters
Not the kill to survive.
#vss365
It's easy to write sad poems:
Just think about life,
Add a metaphor or two,
Make sure it does not rhyme;
Oh, it's tough to write funny stuff:
Just think about life,
Add a metaphor or two,
Make sure it does not rhyme;
If you have reached this part,
Leave the metaphors alone.
---
"Apricity? Ha!"
says the tragicomic Sun.
Life in a furnace.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
(Going on my weekly mopping hols now. Be good, my kids! 🙃🏃♂️)
Blame the #allure of love for the Unofficial Mills & Boon Club.
But, which idiot can't see a serial-killer lurking within every nice person? Or, that every act of TLC is a precursor to a heinous crime?
Thus, we became the Crime Club!
Murder was expected.
But, all?
#vss365
They didn’t need practice for such parties.
If #Languid was his middle name, hers was Scary.
Their parents’ friends, socialite or socialist, were treated with disdain, disgust and every other suitable dis.
That was the only time Swapna and Arjun worked together.
#vss365
"Our latest AI beats the Zeroth Law of AI."
"What's that?"
"AI is like a #sumptuous vegetarian feast. Source of a lot of gas."
"How does it beat that?"
"By recognizing that truth and originality lie in the ignored."
"How is it doing?"
"It hates social interaction."
#vss365
In my college, ragging involved:
"Go to Room 114."
The fresher, boy/girl, had to spend a night alone in that room.
Some never came out. Those who lost their virginity said, "#Smashing."
There were a few who came out undisturbed, the monsters. They did well in life.
#vss365
Why didn’t I
Do all the things I do,
To pick them up
By the #scruff of the neck
And give a kick in the butt,
With
cold indifference
Or nasty questions
Or reciprocating blindly
And
nothing more,
Why didn’t I
Do all the things I do,
With you?
#vss365
When she quotes Greek,
My #backstory is that of Rick-n-Ilsa;
Then she writes fantasy,
It transforms to batty Bruce Wayne's;
When she's a poet,
It's Hulk in the shadows;
But when she kisses me,
It's Darcy with wet underwear,
A lady with a joke
Leaves me with such history.
#vss365
"Swapna, need your feedback. I'm trying tragic stuff."
"You might be away,
But your cheek rests against me,
And your hair still..
I can feel something bad is going to follow.
...The cake I threw at you,
In a #zillion strands,
Why did you go away
Before I had my fill?"
#vss365
the 'tragic' part is from an old one of mine:
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2010/01/supper-at-hotel-rajesh-by-window.html
With more than one foot in the grave, I am not unhappy to leave this world to AI and robots.
I am glad to be part of one paradigm shift, a revolution actually, during my lifetime.
Women now will tell you, "Yes, I want..."
It could be a response or a gift or even sex, men do not have to guess or surprise or even understand.
Men can now treat women like male friends. If they sulk, one can say, "What a bore! Best left alone." If they come close, "Whoa! Not that close, mate." And best, if they talk, one can ignore and focus on one's drink/smoke.
Life used to be so tough when I was a lad. I had to write poetry to woo women. That it had the opposite effect is another story.
"Why can’t you be proud of her? She has won a prestigious prize. She is your daughter, not one of your other...robots."
"Yes, she is human. That is the #nub of the problem. She might be a genius but if she can’t care or love or be responsible, I prefer my other...kids."
#vss365
“This is the earliest form of AI called Universal #Screenplay. One can choose the number of scenes in each act. And the sequence and types of acts and scenes. Horror, comedy, tragedy…”
“Who wrote this?”
“Someone called gOd.”
“Wasn’t this plagiarised as Human Life?”
#vss365
Why is the sunset like my love,
Changing with every view?
There was idealism at first (when I read badly?);
Then, #sensuous lust (was I reading bodice-rippers?);
Finally, plain reality (Chekhov!!!);
I still die with her;
But,
There's curry and bed in my line of sight.
#vss365
"Wipe that smile off your face."
"Swapna, I love the Moral Science class. Do unto others as they do unto you; speak the truth if lies fail; #boycott all that is right but feels wrong. oOOWww! That hurts!"
"Be careful with what you hear and what others will do to you."
#vss365
Paddy's gal eloped with his best mate. Instead of trying a drink/poem, he went for his uncle's funeral. Or, what he thought was his uncle's. Which family wouldn't bash up a strange man bawling at their kin's funeral? I did #wince when I heard of my best mate's troubles.
#vss365
My dear #vss365 pals,
I'm on a vacation to nowhere.
It's not like before. With every face stuck to a screen, there's less chit-chat.
But then, isn't creation some kin of necessity?
Alas! Without alert witnesses, it's a bore to stick a dagger for a #rufous scene.
Yours,
A.
The long summer of '23 reminded me
of when we were lost and Nature was #livid,
insomnia a tranquilizer,
death an irritation,
some died, more were killed,
memories were erased,
the trudge through dusty mirage,
the wait for the dark cloud,
the illusion called love.
#vss365
#vss365
"I love you."
"Are you an imbecile by nature or by nurture?"
"Huh?"
"That's the topic for my seminar. Take politicians. Blame the junta if they stand for election twice. That's nurturing an imbecile..."
"Did you hear what I said?
"Your statement on #lust...Show more
(The "Show more" link has been deactivated because the user has defaulted on his blue tick payments.
To know more about love/lust, someone should pay.)
"Arjun, you first."
"As per Simmon,
it's a fruit
or a colour,
Well,
much ado about nothing."
"Out. Swapna?"
"I wish we could be
One reading this love poem,
Blushing #bright #persimmon."
"Swapna!!! That's my love poem to you. O traitor!"
"You two! Out!"
#vss365
#haikufeels
Murder isn’t uncommon in Heaven.
That's because one can't have a #bone to pick with another there, literally or figuratively.
When one’s enemies have a good life even there, that’s just too much to take.
Hell has no such provocations. Sinners don’t procrastinate.
#vss365
A #bumblebee’s day-
Busy probing private parts.
My life sans the sting.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
First day after lockdown,
We were in office before dawn,
We changed in the lift, superheroes,
Raju in his wife’s #foxy underwear,
Sandy commando, ol' wfh habit,
We left late, stood alone in the park,
Pets and kids happy without us,
Back home, we learned to smile.
#vss365
Coffee & Eulogy
"Here lies a nobody
whose words
lie somewhere-
a #charcoal drawing
left in the rain."
"Really?"
"I know, it's a drag!"
"More coffee, please.
Keep it brief. Say,
Here lies a nobody.
Period."
"Huh?"
"Sugar, please.
Just for me.
Not for the dead."
#vss365
"I love you."
"Pfffttt."
"Swapna!"
"Ma'am, Arjun's face is going through all shades of vibgyor. Now, it's #olivine."
"Ma'am, those three words have done worse to sterner men."
"You two aren't right for Romeo and Juliet."
"Shakespeare rarely uses those three words!"
#vss365
To our unborn child let's
describe the mushroom cloud,
or how we choose the good wars;
but when we are bored stiff,
let's be honest and scowl,
and make love to fantasies;
let's be what we should be,
a saint in joker's garb
or vice versa, an old tale.
"I love the colours you have chosen."
"Smaragdine. Our reading room.
Sarcoline. Bathrooms.
Glaucous. Bar.
Gamboge. Guest room.
Falu. Murder room.
#Timberwolf. Cold storage.
And, this is our bedroom. Vantablack."
"Chooooo. Naughty you."
#vss365
I should have practised more. A month is too long a gap.
I left a few drops of #butterscotch ice-cream on the scene.
Two scoops with a topping of blood straight from the heart. Bloody Heartthrob Mary, I have the patent on that.
This one was not strapped right.
#vss365
Sherbet as #Bordeaux,
Rose apples as strawberries--
Scene for first young kiss.
Byuk, did we say then,
Bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, what-not,
#Depressed years away.
#vss365
#haikufeels
we were naked
and we could have been ready for each other
but we chose
to think of flaws
and the irrelevant past
never the #present nor our future
quite insecure
we were naked
and we closed our eyes to beauty
and we chose
disappointment not misery
just disappointment
#vss365
We are made for each other.
(Clichéd? Don't yawn.)
There's a small but manifest flaw.
She hates the thing that makes me love her.
It has to go, she insists.
There's no point reasoning with her about that.
I would have no idea about love without that.
So be it.
#vss365
He tried to exorcise all the demons within, escape from the months of self-imposed thralldom.
He read the warning, ‘Smoking kills. Tobacco causes cancer.’ He lit a cigarette. He sat motionless, watching the tip of ash #grow. Loneliness kills. Solitude causes emptiness.
#vss365
Sorry, once again. Just one of those days when I have to rely on old stuff.
This is from a travelogue in the form of stories:
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/04/story-tellers-sabbatical.html
Only idiots #forgive!
Call me the Count of Monte Christo!
If only my Faria had a fortune for me!
If only I could escape from this gaol!
O my Mercedes, I just can't wait
To cut your jugular,
And that of your dear hubby's too!
Forgive?
Ha!
Guard! Your whip tickles!
#vss365
"#Baffled??? Love-sign on tree?!!
That's to kill time, waiting! Not
To #communicate..."
#vss365
#haikufeels
My best friend violated rule two of my gang: a pal should not betray because of a woman. I had to kill him.
There are only two left. Like all great friends, we meet once in 10 years. With a weapon or two.
To #relate better,
Anticipate betrayal,
The end can't be far.
#vss365
