MIRROR MIROR

This town has weathered under

too much sun, too much rain…

the sidewalks are cracked and

weeds grow through them to catch

the detritus of our passage.

Faded paper cups, cigarette butts

and discarded clothes that reek 

of urine in our headlong rush

to chaos. We have grown weary 

of freedom, and the thought police

shoot a one-arm salute to the old

ways, to the millions who did not

survive the last time the West went

down this road. We no longer care

where we are going, as long as

someone else points the way, tells

us what we cannot eat, cannot say,

cannot think, and looks somewhere

else when we relieve our bowels

on the street. We have become our own

nightmare, met the enemy and it is us,

despised our hard-earned wisdom and

become for God’s sake, Lawrence’s

monkeys, monkeys with a bland look 

on our faces.

Reviews

[MayHeartsYou]

Sometimes I even find myself wishing I had been born in an era where I could find a respectable lord to serve so I could devote my life to them. I'm scared of making the wrong decisions. I'm scared of being ridiculed. I've left so much behind on my passage, things lost to the weeds forever. Realizing this and fighting past it has made me more capable of moving on my own now, but it would be nice for some guidance sometimes. I usually end up being the person who cleans everyone else's messes. xD Sorry for the rant, I loved the poem though. I had to read it twice for it to sink in, but then I was filled with all these thoughts and feelings.

[Vol]

MHY,
I don't know how old you are, but if you are ten years either side of 20, almost everyone could write what you just said. OMG I wish I had some wise beaing to guide my every step! I'm seventy-five years old and the only thing I can tell you is nothing is all that important. The only way to get it right is to do it wrong, in some cases, many times. I mean think about it, You are in a class taking a test with one hundred questions and you get ten wrong. You will learn what the correcxt answers are to the ten, there is nothing to learn from the other ninety, you already know that stuff.... I LOVE my wrong answers, because they are the ones that tell me where I need ot go. I must have taken a million tests in my life, don't remember a damn thing about any of them. It's why when I was a teacher, i onlyu had one rule in my classes, RELAX. It just isn't that big a deal.
Vol

[MayHeartsYou]

Huh, I've never thought about it that way. I'm able to appreciate the OUTCOME of my wrong answers from the past, being that wrong still stings sometimes though. So I don't know if I can love them, but I love what they've shown me and how they've helped me to become a much better person. You're right though, only wrong answers bring growth. Being right does nothing to help you (aside from stroking your ego). Hearing it that way makes being wrong slightly less scary. I look forward to reading more of your work in the future, I appreciate your words and hope to be able to learn more from what you have to share.
May

[Vol]

MHY,
It has been my LOOOOONG experience that most people spend qway too much time trying to find their voice. we do n ot want for people to ever see our mistakes and failures, but the best part of any movie is its Blunders. If everyone knew who you REALLY are, the world would roll along unchanged. It's not the mistakes that hurt us, is the busywork of trying to hide them.
Vol

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Yes, we are heading in the wrong direction, and the thought police have taken the week off...we are left rambling in our own chaos.
We are his monkeys.
j.

[Thomas W Case]

Tremendous work. Well done, my friend.