Fire On Mars

Of course, there's some starving child somewhere

in some hot, arid country

with flies buzzing about its eyes

as though assuming it's dead

It's too weak to wave them away

What's my hollowness and depression?

As the sun beats down like a fire on Mars.

The news just said another soldier's dead

another car bomb, another land mine,

another martyred anonymity wrapped in explosives

Sand and skin set ablaze and head blown-off

and yet another wife and innocent little family

heart-rending images of sadness and loss

a nicer man you could never wish to meet

a loving husband and the greatest ever dad

I have sympathy and yet I feel nothing.

Little better than a stone on a parched planet

Little more than a rock in a hard place.

Perhaps I'm a murderer waiting to snap

Or the seed in a tyrant's brain

I'm ready to go, I'm ready to grow

in a t.v. screen or a front-page headline

in stories of actresses, celebrities and wannabes

commercials for diets and nuclear families

chefs, cars, free gifts, and lotteries

chat-show-hosts and charities, housewife-dreamt fantasies

skin-deep vanities and superficial realities

soap-opera gossip and royalty's new shoes

cheap flights, drunken holidays, and supermarket booze

self-publishing communication and games-console duels

all the latest technology for money-making mules.

Why should I care and why should it matter?

I have hatred and yet I feel nothing

My soul is a hell like a fire on Mars

What will this world ever make of me?

What's hollowness filled with depression?

What's barrenness now but a lesson

in over-indulgence and saturation?

Always somewhere someone suffers and it might soon be me

When in some fairy-tale tragedy a princess dies

should I have wept with the people and lined-up with flowers?

Am I expected to feel amid so many lies?

You've got your troubles and I've got mine

My reflection in the mirror -

it seems so benign.

Reviews

[.]

the saturation of media in our lives and the desensitizing of things that we should be shocked, stunned and upset by..has been played out on our tv screens, into the papers, you tube and glossy mags, not forgetting games consoles..you see it in your child with there non plus attitude to so many issues or their clouds opinions speaking words from others mouths full of bullshit..god!! You moved me..really outstanding..now I am thinking..f**k this s**t LOL

[Desert Dreamer]

So often we are flooded with a mixture of lies and truth in the media with the intention to get us to spend money. How can we even know that the image of the starving child is real? There are many children living in villages without TV or electricity and they often are much happier than us, why should I "help" them? Rather, I'd like to go live in their village and learn how to truly live. We have become a desensitized society.

[Ice QueenJen]

I like the beginning about a starving child..... yet they are everywhere maybe even down the street. And the part about war- I can truly understand why a person goes into the military they have a purpose; but a suicide bomber is that- no one mourns over the loss, in fact they will soon be forgotten when the next one comes along. Yet the brave soldier will always and forever remembered for what they sacrificed for the masses.

My only problem is with the fire on Mars....... yes its a red planet but I don't think there are fires. Yet otherwise its a great writing and full of analogies on life.

[Light]

this is amazing!

"Little better than a stone on a parched planet
Little more than a rock in a hard place."

this feeling of emptiness, disconnection. the feeling of apathy to someone else's pain. we can't feel anything. we can't relate anymore...just a rock, sitting on a parched, hard planet! beautiful. soul on fire from this over-saturation of what life supposedly is or should be as we get further and further away from our fellow man! great write!

-light-

[Alicante lullaby]

i know the princess that you are talking about...3rd stanza is explosive.
To me this write is common man versus society...You have( like only Devons does )brought out the paradoxs.,..common man's selfishness and his helplessness...on one side there is lack of feel in the lay man that poet mourns but then he gives us reasons for this stoicism..
How is one supposed to find out what to weep upon and what's a sham.
And in this delirium the lay man himself becomes part of a tragedy with no one to mourn him..
Your writes carry so much influence becoz they are meaningful,voice of a very sensitive human;sensitive yet human..

[Robin]

welcome to the media-otic soma of our brave new world ~ a gram is better than a damn ,and arent you glad your a beta ..

[Liza]

this is well thought out
it almost feels like the writer wants to pay tribute to those that suffer
suffer things that are out of their control
i sometimes wonder....while we are writing words on paper about these things
do they write about us?
somehow in recognizing each other....we can appreciate what we have, where we could be or be somewhere where others can strive for....

[hanzabonanza]

I love your writing! It really sucks me in...so all-engulging, with such powerful metaphors. Inspirational :) cool reviews for my stuff too xx

[Ashesh]

This is just amazing! .. I can feel the tension and turmoil of feelings here..

In the beginning we believe we can change the world and what is going around it. But as we slowly grow up we become helpless, a beholder and complete the picture .. which we always hated to see. So, a urge comes from inside for detachment from all this fucked up politicized world and maybe indulgence ourselves in materialism. The only path that look right is to be selfish and bury all those visions that we had once for this world.
It's a really sad poem. But very powerful.. it blew my mind!
Thanks.

[Sweet_pale_cacophony]

I have always admired your writing and how you effectively can channel your angst,anger at society at large through your words.This was incredible.I was moved by the lines
Of course, there's some starving child somewhere
in some hot, arid country
with flies buzzing about its eyes.
The very last stanza is incredible.
What indeed have we become.Empathy is human,natural and yet we lock it up and move as automatons,and what was supposed to be living is becoming a relentless game of survival.We never chose apathy yet that is but what seems so spontaneous these days.