Paranoia or Pareidolia

the faces they stare

(always searching)

from places they shouldn't

(always hoping)

as they rip and they tear

(always searching for answers)

through the fabric of reality

(always hoping to make sense)

they don't care they don't exist

(Always searching for answers from unexpected places)

they know they shouldn't exist

(always hoping to make sense in the nonsensical)

and I find them hard to resist

(always searching for answers from unexpected places and unexpected faces)

as their smiles they share

(always hoping to make sense in the nonsensical abstract gazes we see)

their frowns with no cares

(always searching for answers from unexpected places and unexpected faces, whether real or not)

from inanimate objects

(always hoping to make sense in the nonsensical abstract gazes we see, whether real or not)

the old man smiles from the comfort of his carpeted domain,

(whether real or not)

while the young man grimaces with violent disdain from his curtained plain,

(whether real or not)

and the gorillas, apes and monkeys are all smirking from the side of the train

(always searching and hoping)

why is that housefront laughing?

(searching for answers)

is it laughing with me or at me?

(hoping to make sense)

why is the old tree woman weeping?

(from unexpected places and unexpected faces)

what happened while it was sleeping?

(in the nonsensical abstract we see)

captured, imprisoned gazes of the past

(whether real or not)

frozen, nightmarish glimpses of unrest

(whether real or not)

it's not paranoia

it's pareidolia

*

Thanks for reading!

Author's Notes: This is a poem I've had sitting for months and months in my WIP folder. It needed some tweaking, and voila! It's about that strange phenomenon where many people, including myself, have a tendency to see faces in inanimate objects, buildings, etc.

From Dictionary.com:

"pareidolia [ pair-ahy-doh-lee-uh, pair-uh- ]

noun

the illusory perception of meaningful patterns or images of familiar things in random or amorphous data, as a face seen on the moon."

Here are a couple of other pieces: