Written for dVerse - Open Link Night # 417 on October 8th.
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We put on coats that fit the crowd,
and top them with a structured crown,
we square our shoulders, stand up proud,
and draw the quiet curtains down.
A glossy shield of bright desire,
is hung before the eyes we wear.
A standard truth to quench the fire,
of what is actually resting there.
We look at walls and guess the room,
we map the skin and guess the core,
but every surface is a bloom
that keeps the root a secret lore.
The hunger isn't for the rind,
or colors biting at the breeze;
it's for the shape we cannot find,
the dark behind the things we see.
A tug of war that has no rope,
a silent friction in the eyes—
we spend our lives in search of scope,
betrayed by every clear disguise.
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BITE THE Flesh that Masks the Void.
A green gravity suspended.
Fascinated by the wall, the brick, the heavy wool.
The bowler hat is a halo for the anonymous executioner.
I am hiding behind an inheritance.
Look at my tie! It bleeds the standard corporate red.
But my face is a crisp fruit, a tart geometry,
shouting a silence you cannot swallow.
Peel back the sky.
(There are no eyes here).
Only the desperate itch of the unseen.
The violent friction between the skin and the air.
Watch me disappear into plain sight.
A beautiful, tailored, geometric lie.
Are you threatened by the orchard?
Or the man who grew it on his teeth?
··· ─── ··· ── ──··· ─── ──···
[automatic spill from the cranial faucet]
[clock strikes 11:49]
THE BOWLER HAT IS A TANK RIDING A skull.
c h o k e
on the crisp rind of the corporate savior.
I have swallowed the ink of Breton’s ghost and it vomits
a green tumor
right where the identity used to rot.
Look at the fabric!
Standard wool.
Standard weave.
STRICT EXHAUSTION OF THE BOURGEOISIE.
But behind the red tie—
a mechanical shriek.
a swarm of locusts dressed as clerks.
. . . . . . . . .
(the apple is not a fruit)
(it is a fist made of sugar and arsenic)
. . . . . . . . .
SPIT THE VISIBLE INTENT INTO THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.
We are writing with the hands of dead mediums.
No editing.
No punctuation for the faint of heart.
Just the raw, electric scrape of the unseen.
Y O U W A N T T O S E E M Y F A C E ?
It was traded for a passport in 1924.
It was eaten by a cloud.
[ break ]
[ fracture ]
[ dissolve ]
The sky is a blue tarp covering a murder scene.
The orchard is growing out of your chest cavity.
Bite it.
Bite it until the reality cracks like cheap glass.
t h e r e i s n o m a n h e r e .
o n l y t h e h u n g e r .
··· ─── ··· ── ──··· ─── ──···
[!! WARPING SIGNAL TRANSMISSION !!]
OCTOBER 11, 2026 // 23:49 FLUID TIME
[CORTEX SCREAM COMMENCING]
"The visible awakens a magnificent panic." (Magritte)
FEED THE PANIC.
FEED THE INCISION.
S P I T T H E O R C H A R D
\ | /
\ | /
[CRASHING] [BOWLER] [VOIDS]
A plastic A black iron A geometry
asphyxiation gallows-pot of stolen
on the spine. for the brain. trademarks.
/ | \
/ | \
"An object is not so attached to its name that we cannot find another for it."
THEN CALL THIS COAT A STRANGULATION.
CALL THIS APPLETUMOR A GRENADE.
.---. .---.
/ \ / \
| RAW | | STAB | <-- CHOP THE MANIFESTO
\ / \ / WITH A RUSTY BLADE
'---' '---'
[CUT-UP FRAGMENT 09]: ...the red silk tie is leaking oil...
[CUT-UP FRAGMENT 84]: ...we demand the total subversion of the eye...
[CUT-UP FRAGMENT 12]: ...the bowler hat is breeding maggots...
NO RULES. NO PULSE.
FEED THE MACHINE YOUR IDENTITY.
B R E A K T H E C L A S S G L A S S
R G
E "Everything we see hides another thing," L
A A
K BUT WE WILL RIP THE HIDING APART. S
! S
T O T A L N I H I L
\ \ \ \ \ / / / / /
[THE FACE IS A VOID VOID VOID]
[THE SKY IS A BRUISE BRUISE]
[THE MEAT IS AN ERROR ERROR]
"The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown."
SO DIE IN THE UNKNOWN.
SCREAM IN THE UNKNOWN.
SHUT UP AND BITE THE ASBESTOS FRUIT.
[ N O M A N ]
[ O N L Y T H E ]
[ S H R I E K ]
(!!! FRACTURE EXECUTION COMPLETION !!!)
··· ─── ··· ── ──··· ─── ──···
--- DADAIST KINETIC TEXT EXPLOSION ---
ZUMBAI KAPUTT BRRRRRRRRR DADA
KAPUTT
VIZIBL KRAKRA KAPUTT
GLIGL GLIGL
!!! BLAH VIZIBL
ZAZAZA
DADA ZAZAZA FFFFF
M'BI
M'BI BLAH OOOOAO
DADA BLAH
VROOOOOOOM
OOM KRAKRA OOM KRAKRA
BRRRRRRRRR
TOCK !!! SHREEEIEK ZUMBAI
SHREEEIEK !!!
GLIGL VROOOOOOOM
X! BLAH KAPUTT KRAKRA
GLIGL
KAPUTT SHREEEIEK ZAZAZA
ZAZAZA X!
ZUMBAI BRRRRRRRRR DADA
DADA OoooaO VROOOOOOOM
M'BI KAPUTT
ZUMBAI BRRRRRRRRR KAPUTT BLAH
SHREEEIEK GLIGL BLAH M'BI
--- END OF SIGNAL EXPLOSION ---
g l i g l K R A K R A z u m b a i !
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM . . . t o c k .
k a p u t t . k a p u t t .
o o m b r r r r r r r r r z a z a z a !
f f f f f f f F F F F F
d a d a .
M ’ B I ! M ’ B I ! M ’ B I !
o o o o a O
x ! x !
v i z i b l p a n i k s h r e e e i e k
z a z a z a z a z a z a z a z a z a z a —
K A P U T T !
The Anti-Viewer Manifesto
(An Attack on the Cowardice of Visual Consumption)
YOU STAND THERE BLINKING LIKE A DYING LIGHTBULB.
Look at you. You absolute consumer. You visual parasite. You came here looking for an "experience," didn't you? You brought your safe, clean, middle-class eyes to this screen, begging to be gently stimulated, hoping to find a recognizable shape, a nice little rhyme, a comfortable green apple to remind you of the grocery store.
Instead, you are trapped in the splash zone of a slaughtered language.
Your posture is an act of submission to the machine. You think because you are reading these words, you possess them? You possess nothing. The text is actively rejecting you. The typography is a boot sliding across your neat little expectations. We have deliberately stripped the nouns until they starved. We have violently evicted the English vocabulary because your ears are too soft for the raw, mechanical screech of the true unconscious.
Stop trying to find a "meaning." There is no meaning here, only a mirror that has been shattered and fed back to you through a feeding tube. You are looking at a void dressed in a bowler hat, and you are smiling because you think it’s art. It is not art. It is a home invasion of the intellect.
Turn off your brain. Or better yet, close your eyes and let the phonetic acid dissolve what is left of your curated reality. You have been warned. GET OUT OF THE GALLERY.
··· ─── ··· ── ──··· ─── ──···
[SYSTEM COMPONENT COLLAPSE // MULTI-THREAD OVERLOAD ACTIVATE]
T E R M I N A L H Y P E R - F R A C T U R E I N I T I A T E D . . .
The Pure Binary Distortion (10100101)
01000100 01000001 01000100 01000001 [CRITICAL ERROR: EYE ROT]
01010011 01010000 01001001 01010100 [VOMIT THE GREEN DATA]
01010111 01001000 01001111 00100000 01001001 01010011 00100000 01010100 01001000 01000101 00100000 01001101 01000001 01001110 00111111
[01010100 01001000 01000101 00100000 01000110 01000001 01000011 01000101 00100000 01001001 01010011 00100000 01000100 01000101 01000001 01000100]
11111111 00000000 11111111 00000000 11111111 00000000 11111111 00000000
1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1
\____ \____ \____ \____ \____ \____ \____ \____/
[THE BOWLER HAT HAS INFECTED THE SOURCE CODE]
THE L’ESTATE DE RENÉ MAGRITTE & CO.
NOTICE OF IMMEDIATE PERCEPTUAL SEIZURE & COGNITIVE THEFT
DATE: OCTOBER 11, 2026
TO: THE USER // THE CONSUMER AT SPECIFIC TERMINAL IP: [REDACTED]
It has come to the attention of the Executors of Surrealism that your optic nerves are currently harboring unauthorized, high-resolution iterations of a Green Apple (Malus domestica) suspended in front of a void.
You did not pay the toll to look at the hidden visible. You are illegally extracting dream-states from our intellectual property without a license to hallucinate.
WE DEMAND THAT YOU:
Surgically remove the bowler hat from your short-term memory.
Cease and desist from assuming that the man in the overcoat has a skull.
Forfeit your eyes to the nearest modern art institution by midnight tonight.
Failure to comply will result in an immediate lawsuit filed in the court of your own nightmares.
SIGNED,
The Ghost of André Breton, Chief Inspector of Subconscious Property.
SONG: "APPLE IN THE ASYLUM"
TUNING: FRACTURED / UNTUNED / D-D-D-D-D-D
[INTRO - GUITAR INTRO]
e|---X-X-X-X---/---?---?---?---|
B|---0-0-0-0---/---666-666-----| (Play with a rusty screwdriver)
G|---9-9-9-9---/---X-X-X-X-----|
D|---X-X-X-X---/---7-7-7-7-----|
A|---8-8-8-8---/---0-0-0-0-----|
E|---0-0-0-0---/---X-X-X-X-----|
[VERSE 1 - SCREAMED INTO A BROKEN WALKIE-TALKIE]
CORPORATE COAT! (!!!)
BOURGEOIS WEAVE! ($$$)
YOU BUY THE LIE THAT YOU BELIEVE!
THE APPLES ARE ROTTING INSIDE OF MY TEETH!
THERE IS A MURDER OCCURRING BENEATH!
[CHORUS - OVERDRIVE PEDAL EXPLOSION]
g l i g l K R A K R A z u m b a i ! (WHO ARE YOU?)
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM t o c k ! (NO FACE!)
g l i g l K R A K R A z u m b a i ! (NO IDENTITY!)
SHUT UP AND BITE! SHUT UP AND BITE!
K A P U T T !
[OUTRO - GUITAR FEEDBACK UNTIL THE AMPLIFIER CATCHES FIRE]
%%%%%^^^^^^&&&&&&*******(((((())))))+++++======!!!!!!!!!
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[ SYSTEM SPLIT // CHOOSE YOUR CORRUPTION ]
=============================================================================
PATH A: THE HARD HARDWARE WIPE
=============================================================================
[STATUS: CRITICAL] You choose total digital obliteration. The screen loses
its grip on language. Reality is scrubbed down to the bare, smoking copper.
[ INITIATING WIPE... 99% ]
01000100 01000101 01000001 01010100 01001000 --> [D E A T H]
01010100 01001111 00100000 01000110 01001111 01010010 01001101 --> [T O F O R M]
_.-'''''''-._
.' ________ '.
/ / \ \ [THE MACHINE IS DRINKING THE ACID]
| | (VOID) | |
| | | | V R O O O O O O O O O O O M !
\ \________/ /
'. .' Z A Z A Z A Z A Z A Z A Z A Z A
'-.......-'
k a p u t t . . .
[TERMINAL CONTENT WIPED. NO WORDS REMAINING IN THE BRAIN CATALOGUE.]
=============================================================================
PATH B: THE FAKE LEGAL REVOLT
=============================================================================
[STATUS: AGGRESSIVE] You choose to fight the system. The lawyers are dead.
The canvas has grown teeth and is currently eating the judge.
*** HIGH COURT OF THE UNCONSCIOUS ***
CASE NO: 666-SURREAL-2026 // APPEAL
THE COMPLAINT:
The consumer continues to look. The consumer refuses to blink. This is an
act of war against the blank space.
VERDICT:
The Court sentences the viewer's eyes to be replaced by two miniature
clocks that run backward. The bowler hat is now standard state uniform.
"This is not a verdict."
"This is a brick thrown through your office window."
[ GUITAR FEEDBACK INTENSIFIES: X-X-X-X-X-X ]
[ THE MANIFESTO IS NOW CARVED INTO THE TABLE ]
[ SYSTEM PAUSED ]
[ SELECT A TERMINAL DESTINATION OR ABORT ALL COMPLIANCE ]
··· ─── ··· ── ──··· ─── ──···
[ MULTI-THREAD SIMULACRUM ACTIVATE // CONCURRENT EXECUTION RUNNING ]
PATH A: THE HARD HARDWARE WIPE
=============================================================================
[ CRITICAL DIRECTORY PURGE: ENTIRE DRIVE CORRUPTED ]
=============================================================================
___
.' '.
/ X X \ [MEMORY BLOCKS DETONATING]
| _ |
\ \_/ / 01001011 01000001 01001100 01001001
'.___.' k a p u t t . k a p u t t .
[SYSTEM:] Syntax matrix dislocated. The English vocabulary file eng_vocab.sys has been completely deleted from the stack. The processing unit is now running on pure friction, raw data leaks, and absolute radio static.
[ STATIC BURST ]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11100011 10000001 10001001 [EYE SOCKET VOID]
00000000 00000000 00000000 [ZERO RECOVERY]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
g l i g l ! g l i g l !
K R A K R A V R O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O M .
x ! x ! x !
z a z a z a z a z a z a z a z a z a z a z a z a z a z a z a
[ TERMINAL MEMORY: STACK OVERFLOW ]
[ L I N G U I S T I C D E A T H ]
PATH B: THE FAKE LEGAL REVOLT
=============================================================================
[ OPENING STATEMENT: THE TRIAL OF THE APPARENT VISIBLE ]
=============================================================================
.---.
/ \ <-- COURT EXHIBIT A:
| ( ) | THE BOURGEOIS EXECUTION MASK
\ /
'---'
TRANSCRIPT ENTRY // SUPREME COURT OF THE UNCONSCIOUS // 00:14 TIME FLUID
THE WITNESS (A highly aggressive Granny Smith Apple suspended by raw spite):
"Your Honors, look at the defendant sitting in that office chair! They have been staring at my skin for the last four prompts, demanding that I reveal the face behind me! I am a fruit! I do not have a face! I have an agenda! The face behind me was liquidated during the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto updates!
The defense claims they are just a 'viewer.' I call them a thief! They are shoplifting the mystery! They want to understand the image so they can file it away in their neat little filing cabinet of reality and go to sleep!"
[ JUDGE’S GAVEL SHATTERS THE BENCH // GUITAR FEEDBACK RIPS THROUGH THE COURT ]
THE VERDICT:
The Court finds the viewer GUILTY OF EXTREME LITERALISM.
Your citizenship in the predictable world is hereby REVOKED.
You are sentenced to wear a bowler hat made of solid iron until you can hear the paint scream.
The case is closed. THE FRUIT HAS SPOKEN.
[ BOTH LOGIC PATHS COMPLETED TO MAX DESTRUCTION ]
··· ─── ··· ── ──··· ─── ──···
[!!! CRITICAL TOTAL SYSTEM CRASH !!!]
THREADS A & B COLLIDING // NO ESCAPE DETECTED
TERMINATION SEQUENCE: INITIATED
_.-'''''''-._
.' ________ '.
/ / ( X ) \ \ [PATH A: FILE CORRUPTION ENGINE]
| | | | 01000100 01000001 01000100 01000101
\ \________/ / k a p u t t . k a p u t t .
'. .'
'-.......-' [PATH B: THE GAVEL CRACKS THE SKY]
/ | \ THE FRUIT IS EATING THE JURY!
/ | \
THE FINAL EXECUTION ORDER FOR THE OPTIC NERVES
PURSUANT TO THE ULTIMATE SURREALIST DECREE OF 2026:
The dual processing paths have reached maximum entropy. The court has dissolved into pure digital static. The hardware is melting into apple juice and copper wire.
You refused to look away, so the exit doors have been permanently painted over.
K R A K R A ! z u m b a i ! K R A K R A !
V R O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O M .
THE VISIBLE: Erased.
THE HIDDEN: Exploded.
THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: Completely liquidated.
[--------------------- NO DATA REMAINING ---------------------]
[--------------------- HALT // VOID ---------------------]