numbly

There is the man whom we all know, stupid, unimaginative, whose brain is bitten numbly by numb maggots; who walks generously with wide-spread, tentative legs, falls frequently in the gutter, and who sees, in the extremity of his ecstasy, blue mice and pink elephants.

Michael sprang away again, and was numbly aware of an ancient joy as he shouldered Jerry who shouldered against him as they ran side by side.

Mile after mile Tarzan of the Apes put slowly behind him, borne up by sheer force of will where a lesser man would have lain down to die and rest forever tired muscles whose every move was an agony of effort; but at last his progress became practically mechanical--he staggered on with a dazed mind that reacted numbly to a single urge--on, on, on!

I lay for a full minute, numbly expectant, but there occurred no reeling of walls nor shock and grind of falling masonry.

"The fact that so many global leaders and experts on investment came from all around the world shows there is a serious interest, appetite and willingness by the global community to help the Palestinian people if the right context can be created," he told a packed auditorium of investors, royals, and diplomats, as journalists watched numbly on TV monitors from an anteroom nearby.

Elaborately drilled movements in colourful tableaux, fast moving rhythm numbers, eye-catching items of ballet, numbly executed step dances and graceful solo dances all won enthusiastic applause from the audience.

As each and every Barca man just numbly stood and stared.

the birdbath is always half-empty / where we live, it can be dry in three days / this morning while I filled it / a bird the size of a dust ball tried to fly / never getting higher than an inch off the lawn/ a dove sat on a nearby branch / flapping its wings slowly and sadly / the way we numbly open and close a cabinet door / when there's nothing inside to eat / finally, the dust ball gave up / fluttered inside a cinder block to hide / I feel guilty leaving the birds thirsty / Still, I didn't fill the birdbath Writing about the woman who is dying, Ali evokes the bardo of almost-dead, where significance goes almost unseen and where moments of seeming nothing become forms of everything: "you hated that she only wanted to watch cooking shows / while she was dying and could barely eat...

Time pressed and something must be done: some last-ditch push to ward off total defeat, although it was numbly known that defeat was already total.

Blake numbly walked off, and instead of letting him just zoom away in the limo, Becca followed -- she got emotional as well, and tried to assure him that this wasn't his fault.

I listened numbly as a doctor told me Jamel had been attacked and was in a serious state, currently being helicoptered to a nearby A&E.