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Ennui

The Unnecessary Line

By Edward SwaffordPublished 18 days ago Updated 5 days ago 1 min read
CARELESS. Image by Iman Eshraghi from Pexels.

The world is no longer a stage, now merely a short-circuited catatonic circus.

Mouths move at a million macro expressions to what end? We all kiss the same square-shaped Reaper lips, zipping full circle at vertiginous speed toward some "cycle of life."

Magniloquent faces in soporific spaces — sleep now, they're blind anyway— maneuver mundanity like it's second nature. Seldom seeing = never believing.

Ceding control is a banquet of coercion for hunger pangs of disillusioned and destitute prodigals. Sociopathy is opportunity dressed in idiopathy.

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤LOVE🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

Fasten on a new face and be anybody you want. Deceiving dulls the hollow core devoid of philosophical prattle, so hold your nerve and elevate from enervation with metafictional action.

It's the only mimesis left. Watch as righteous comeuppance drops from cascades of civic (chain reaction) gullibility. Panoply people fall for anything.

Coif your hair to one sharpened side like a flicker-switch "ON" button, for today you're buttering their bread, and tomorrow?

You'll be seasoning them for a final fucking supper.

Feign love, forge false friendships, sow empathy in the shadowlands. Hell, sew sheaths of calculating modus operandi deception to FEEL.

Something ¿¿¿

Anything ¿¿¿

Nor nothing at all bests ennui.

PRETENDER. Image by Mohammadreza Babaei from Pexels.

(c) Edward Swafford 2026

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About the Creator

Edward Swafford

Hello! I'm an Australian writer, copywriter, and healthcare professional. I've written on Medium for over two years and also run Black Coffee Creative on Substack (over 900 subscribers).

Edgy syntax is my bailiwick.

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Nice work

Very well written. Keep up the good work!

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Comments (6)

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  • Sandy Gillman16 days ago

    Omg! I just love your vocabulary ❤️

  • Rachel Robbins16 days ago

    Writing about ennui, but demonstrating a justifiable rage at the catatonic circus. ❤️

  • John R. Godwin17 days ago

    Who comes up with "Magniloquent faces in soporific spaces" except you? I've found myself migrating toward simpler language in my writing, and it's great to see someone writing so well going in the opposite direction. Really enjoyed this piece. Great job.

  • Marilyn Glover17 days ago

    You did it again, Edward! Vocabularly galore, super awesome images, the entire package!🌹🪄 I like to pick out a favorite line when I comment, and this one kept enticing my eyes to visit and visit again: " Sociopathy is opportunity dressed in idiopathy.

  • Tim Carmichael17 days ago

    You have a real gift for jagged, rhythmic prose. It feels like a fever dream filtered through a cyberpunk lens.

  • Reece Beckett18 days ago

    This is wonderful! Love the vocabulary on show here especially, really effective 

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