Living

By Cliff Lake

 

Living

 

We succumb to the fantasy,

Invested in make-believe,

Slaves to Illusion and delusion,

And willingly.

Paper-ruled,

Chasing calculation,

Revering the reverie,

A dream and nightmare we pursue,

And must not escape,

If we are to eat.

We give over ever more

To cold machines,

Electronic measures of our value,

Secretly encoded,

Visible to none,

But the enslavers.

Ah! What folly!

In a quest for more of the mirage,

Too many debase themselves utterly,

And what value have they then,

Save the numbers on the screen?

A concept of caliber

Made real in the mind,

Represented on paper,

And carried in the diode,

Seldom concrete in act.

The totality of a person

Numerically appraised,

And presented in plastic.

When did this become life?

And when the power goes out –

What will we value then?

Empty bellies will answer that.

Then we will remember life.

Then we will remember living.

Then we will remember how.

 

Cliff Lake 9/28/2024

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2024

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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