A Strangulation

By Cliff Lake

 

A Strangulation

 

The incessant need of the crowd:

A succubus you sought out.

Insatiable in demand,

The audience that smothers.

 

The slow strangulation of popularity.

 

A vacuum of you,

You gave willingly.

Doled out for the suffocating return,

How much of you is left?

 

Slowly strangled by popularity.

 

Give and give and give some more!

Is it still genuine?

You give and still they hunger,

When did you cease to win?

 

You are strangling in popularity.

 

Hollow, you got hollow,

Who can say what will follow?

You started the cycle –

And now you can’t get off.

 

Strangling yourself with popularity.

 

What do the numbers add up to?

Do you gain just to gain?

What have you got upon review?

You’ll leave it behind just the same…

 

The doors that never stop knocking,

The answers you cannot give.

The vortex that you created,

You fell in and can’t swim.

 

This slow strangulation of popularity.

 

Get out on the stage!

A denial of age!

Soundbites right on cue,

This is you losing you…

 

Cliff Lake 10/5/2026

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2026

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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