Mad World

A Poem by Mike Goodwin

Make you dance do a spin and a twirl and voice going crazy on this hook like a whirlwind. Swaggy.

Two young men are walking through a parking garage, trying to find their cars, when one overhears the other.

Person 1: What are you talking about?

Person 2: Nothing.

Person 1: How could you be talking about nothing? You cant. You have to be talking about something, otherwise you are not talking.

Person 2: I beg to differ.

Person 1: Really?

Person 2: Yeah.

Person 1: No, you can't. You can't be talking about nothing.

Person 2: You are talking about nothing right now. Talking about me talking about nothing equates to not talking about anything.

Person 1: That is precisely what I am talking about. I am talking to you about you talki-..

Person 2: About nothing.

Person 1: It doesn't matter if its about nothing. I'm talking about the action of talking.

Person 2: No. You're not. You never specify that.

Person 1: Its implied.

Person 2: No it's not. You don't see it.

Person 1: I know exactly what I see.

Person 2: If I give up this argument right now, I will still be right. So, you know what, I'm just going to stop. Nothing can change me from being right.

Person 1: Wrong can change you from being right.

Person 2: But, simply put, I'm not wrong.

Person 1: I'm not going to argue.

Person 2: Victory.

*walks away, toward stairwell A, Person 1 follows.*

Person 1: You can't be serious with this.

Person 2: Why do you keep coming back when all you do is deflect the argument.

Person 1: Deflect the argument? That's you good sir.

Person 2: You are like a little child, you can't accept your inferiority, because you don't know it yourself; yet, you keep insisting. Well, so is the nature of argument. Both sides refuse to back down. Honestly, I'm done with this. I am opting out of this. I am right. I will always be right. I don't want to argue.

Person 1: Ok. Looks like somebody's scared.

*Person 2 shakes his head, slouched and eyes glazed in annoyed contemplation*

Person 1: (to himself) I was right. I know I'm right. I was always right. Why is this weighing on my mind so much? It shouldn't even matter.

Person 2: (In a yell from the bottom of the stairwell, faintly heard) Idiot! Complete Idiot!

*A loud banging noise is heard coming from the bottom of the stairwell. Person 1 turns around, raises his lowered head, and takes a step toward the iron door leading to the stairwell.*

Person 3: (watching from the shadows, perched on a horizontal metal construction beam above the two men's heads) Complete strangers. A truly mad world we live in.

Person 4: (Perched on the other end of the beam, also in shadows) A man watching two complete strangers from the shadows. A truly mad world we live in.

Person 5: (Perched in the middle of an adjacent metal beam) But, no one is as mad as I.

*Feuding is faintly heard from the bottom of the stairwell.*