poetry | Jeltje

HEMMED IN BY HEARSAY . . .

Believing only in oneself,
One’s relationship to one’s own way of living,
Looking at the world from the viewpoint
Of self-imposed physical alienation,
Fixed and essentialist,
Keeping all doubts at large,
Confusing the world
With the look of one’s own lounge room,
Comfortable but devoid of most living things . . .
Monotonousness makes mistakes so big
You can’t even see them,
With overtones of gross insanity,
Investments in criminality,
Ego-driven stunts!

Locked securely into the Money Market,
Allowing oneself to be churned about
Like butter in a mix-master,
Herded against the wall, hurled into oblivion,
Hastily breaking off all personal commitments,
Becoming one solid mass together,
Packaged and voiceless,
Doomed to live out one’s life as anonymous,
Sealed off, enviable and unapproachable,
The cream off the top of the range,
Thick, white opulence,
Too ashamed to share the burden of it all
With anybody else.

Sitting around in one’s lounge room,
Thinking one is on top of the world,
Avoiding face to face communication,
Allowing chatter to be idle,
The world one vast spectacle of inanities,
Hearsay and mindless meanderings,
Where the self is equated
With an interminable need for light entertainment,
Artificial stimuli, escapist dreams . . .
Dictating other peoples’ realities is a by-product of fear!
Committing robberies of other people’s time,
Pirating patience,
Raising the alarm at trivialities is unforgivable!
Not listening to anyone else’s point of view
Is slavery to sham aural practices,
Living by impulse alone, a non-communal state.

Overland 180–spring 2005, p.72