Showing posts with label #poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #poetry. Show all posts

Reality TV

Let's have a little chat about reality TV.
Just whose are these realities they're choosing us to see?
To mock and martyr, revile and revere,
Emotion's perspective tweaked and turned to play on our fears.
We use these worlds to bury ourselves in things we know not to be true
because none of us can face the real reality show - The News.
Mountain-top mosquito-people, drinking blood to survive.
And we've started counting instead, how many Palestinians are left alive?
There are state sponsored murders based on Kinsey Scale scores
and of institutionalised putrefaction we've never known more.
We waste our votes on X Factor and don't register to vote.
We don't know our rights but do know theme tunes, off by rote.
They're closing the borders! Too Early! Too Late!
                  The timing is quite immaterial.
They're not doing it to avoid Ebola's fate.
                  It's the absolute opposite of ethereal.
By maintaining money in short supply and feeding us mental dripping,
Further from human and conscious and pure we are irretrievably slipping.
Unless we change our habits we are doomed to these repeats
of funerals and far-off wars and fighting in the streets.
Just whose are those realities they're choosing us to see?
Take another look at your reality TV.

She Swore

She swore that she would love him
for better or for worse.
From the wedding carriage
to the funeral hearse.

She swore that she would love him
for richer or poorer
and wealth is measured many ways;
money's not important for her.

She swore that she would love him
to have and to hold
but his mind is playing tricks.
He doesn't remember growing old.

She swore that she would love him
in sickness and in health
but this damned disease is stealing him
insidious in stealth.

She swore that she would love him
to love and to cherish.
To watch him wither while alive
leaves on happy years a blemish.

She swore that she would love him
until death did them part
and although she does and he still lives
it's with a broken heart.

She swore that she would love him
til his bones were naught but dust
and alone she works to comfort him
and doesn't want a fuss.

Choices

Choices.
We all have to make them.
Which drink to drink.
Which thought to think.
Is this rock bottom
Or nirvana's brink?
Here’s a hint:
                     It's in your hands.
And yet our plans never seem to pan
Out.
Cause we schedule our schemes without talking.
We’re riffing without harmony and walking
When we should be dancing
And asking:
“What do you wanna do?”
I know you get frustrated
When you’re waiting and I’m saying
“I’m not sure, it’s so hard to decide”
But we’re drowning in a sea
Of unnecessarily delineated similarities
Dubious differences,
Invisible to the naked eye.
Distracting.
As wide as a sigh
With the full spectrum of importance
From turquoise
To teal.
Until you don’t know what to feel
‘Cause they’re stealing your freedoms.
Do you want gold or silver bars on your cage?

Choices.
We all have to make them.
Which turn to turn.
Which bridge to burn
Which path to choose.
Who’s respect to earn.
Here’s a hint:
                                It’s your own.
And when you’re thrown from your throne
That you built with blood and bones
Then you’ll have to knot your rope
And start climbing.
Hand over blistering hand.
The shifting sands of others’ expectations
And your own anchor preoccupations
Determine at which strata you plateau.
And although the decisions you make
May be different from his, or hers, or mine
Remember they’re yours,
But they do not define
you.

Choices.
We all have to make them.
Which battle to battle,
Which river to rattle,
Which knowledge to keep
Are we mind or matter?
Here’s a hint:
                                Reprioritise.
And when you try to look past
All the inconsequential shite
Of a world more commercial than pure
Be assured
You will see the ones who choose
Substance abuse over substance
You will see the ones who choose
Long term betrayal over temporary tears
And you will say
“They’ve made the wrong decision”
As if it were your undeniable right to judge them
And begrudge instead of empathise
Instead of recognizing
That the preferences of others are not your responsibility
And your own susceptibility to deference
To a power you perceive to be greater than your own
Is deceiving.
It’s another way to opt out of believing
In yourself
And your ability

To choose.