Notice of absence from Tristan Robert Lange
Life is full of seasons. This is a season of transition for me, where I will be moving with my family to a new location. As such, with much logistics to consider, I am doing my best to keep up. Please know if I accidentally don't respond, it is not because I am ghosting or becoming distant. Once things settle after the move, I am sure life will return to some normalcy. In the meantime, and always:
Read 👓, Write ✍️, Rise 🌅, Realize 🤯.
Tristan 🌹🖤🙏🕯️🐦⬛
Life is full of seasons. This is a season of transition for me, where I will be moving with my family to a new location. As such, with much logistics to consider, I am doing my best to keep up. Please know if I accidentally don't respond, it is not because I am ghosting or becoming distant. Once things settle after the move, I am sure life will return to some normalcy. In the meantime, and always:
Read 👓, Write ✍️, Rise 🌅, Realize 🤯.
Tristan 🌹🖤🙏🕯️🐦⬛
i woke up in earnest,
the day set before me—
carpe diem...
or is it the Diet of Carp?—
worm on a hook—
fish swim in to school me
crap all the same.
i’m the butt of the joke
in a club full of jokers,
ego strokers,
denial smokers,
delusion tokers.
culpably high-floating
on their own clouds
of complacency.
© 2026 Tristan Robert Lange. All rights reserved.
First published on tristanrobertlange.com, May 18, 2026.
Tittu
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Author:
Tristan Robert Lange (
Offline) - Published: May 18th, 2026 08:05
- Comment from author about the poem: Part of The Thinking Dark collection.
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 13
- Users favorite of this poem: Friendship, Salvia.S
- In collections: The Thinking Dark.
Offline)
Comments8
Orchi...in advance, yes, there is a Diet of Glug too! And we all know who wants that! 🤣
A fun play on words and their meaning. Enjoyed the rhyme play as well. Isn't life a word play as well with misunderstandings and careful choice of words to not offend or maybe offend. In this we are all the jokers and butt of the joke. All a matter of view. Well written my friend
Thank you so much, Soren. 🤣 You nailed exactly where my head was at with this one…the slippery way language and perspective twist around each other until everyone ends up half philosopher and half punchline. Truly grateful for your thoughtful read, my friend. 🐟🕯️📜🙏
You are most welcome Tristan those carp are slippery to hold
Argh! An English King, Henry I, I think, died from a surfeit of lampreys - horrid things to eat, eel-like things. Never had one in my life, and not about to start now either. Meanwhile, P eats them with spinach I reckon. lol. What can WCAT reveal to us? Nothing, of course! heehee.
Orchi, now THIS is the kind of historical culinary nightmare I expect from WCAT investigative journalism. 🤣 Imagine surviving medieval warfare only to be defeated by evil spaghetti fish. Meanwhile Popeyeus Glug Maximus Solus thinks this "new" turn of events, with King Henry I losing life to lampreys, makes him king...He's apparently over there seasoning lampreys with spinach and declaring them “part of a balanced glugfast.” No lamprey can kill him! Disturbing scenes, my friend. Always love where your mind wanders. 🐟🕯️📜🙏
By there fruits you shall know them.
Thank you so much, my friend. 🤣 Exactly…the poem’s really circling that idea that eventually people reveal what they’re rooted in, no matter how polished the surface presentation may be. The fruit always tells on the tree sooner or later. 🐟🕯️📜🙏
The play on words both wax sharply! Brandishing and clashing ⚔️🤺🙏🏻🕊️
arqios, thank you so much, my friend. 🤣 I love your phrasing there…“brandishing and clashing” really captures the spirit of the piece. Truly grateful for your read and presence as always. 🐟🕯️📜🙏
Likewise... as we cut the carp and lay out the tarp🕊️
Excellent write,Tristan. Clever at that!
Thank you so much, Katie. 🤣 This one definitely started with me amusing myself over “carpe diem” mutating into “Diet of Carp” and then spiraled from there into philosophical fish nonsense. Truly grateful it landed for you, my friend. 🐟🕯️📜🙏
Well said. Your poem addresses the internal conflict of a person who wakes up ready to confront the day but is immediately met with a sense of irony and disillusionment. The imagery of fishing and being "school[ed]" serves as a metaphor for societal pressures and the feeling of being trapped in a cycle of complacency.OMG, I feel at times I am the butt of it all.
Much appreciated, Friendship. You really caught the tension between earnestness and disillusionment I was wrestling with here. And yes…some days it absolutely feels like we’re simultaneously the fish, the worm, AND the confused one holding the fishing pole. 🤣 Thanks again for the thoughtful insight, my friend. 🐟🕯️📜🙏
Some clever word play going on here. Seize the Day mi amigo. An interesting poem.Enjoyable
Much appreciated, David. I definitely wanted the wordplay to wobble back and forth between sincerity and absurdity a bit…like the poem itself couldn’t decide whether to philosophize or flop around on the dock. 🤣 Grateful for your read, my friend. 🐟🕯️📜🙏
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