Today’s fiends
downward leaning
gawk on screens
cyber preening
If suggested they be weaned
through an intervention
they’ll act aggrieved & demeaned
in glib circumvention:
“We must left free to careen
hunched over with nose on screen!”
Who are electric bikes for?
Just about everybody including those:
With legs toothpick scrawny
or Tour de France brawny.
Celebs basking in fawning fame
or whose friends can’t recall their name.
Who are hard pressed to steer & pedal
or just won an Olympic medal.
Who are not obtuse:
So, what’s your excuse?
Torn asunder, going under
The smartphone obsession
impairs our mental mettle
restrains in regression
fades fast erstwhile fine fettle
Claims of ‘doing our research’
just clicking profusion
Silly stupefying smirch
cutting short conclusion!
Thus we’re torn asunder
while we’re going under
Feed it and we’ll endow it
Dare to question Tech Perfection
beyond granted latitude
and we’ll face instant rejection
thus won’t change Tech’s attitude
Our misgivings of Technology
is not to slander and belie
It shows signs of own pathology
fever chart racing up awry
Why do we march, lockstep with spring
obeying each ring & flash?
How long let brash gadgets go ‘ting’
while draining our cards of cash?
Just as long as we allow it
feed the Beast and we’ll endow it!
Watch me, Mom!
Baby Anton Oct 2013 in his stroller with Eric leaning over
Anton, aged one, seated in his elaborate stroller and Eric, his old neighbor & ground crew, meet for a morning chat, while Anton reflects:
Mom, Mom watch, watch me, Mom
handsome, unruffled.
Staying serenely calm
by binky muffled.
Mom, Mom watch, watch me, Mom
in my spacecraft seat.
With greatest of aplomb
hovering off street.
So cool by console, at controls
by all adult doubt unfazed.
Topping the baby pilot polls
my many enemies dazed.
But it can’t be a breeze
for my poor ground crew.
Eric leaning in askew
on his aging knees?
We’re two gregarious chaps
who banter when we meet
sporting similar slick caps:
The neighborhood elite.
(p.s. Mom:)
Admirers all keep rushing
squeaky voices gushing.
How do I avoid blushing?
Celeb’s role bit crushing.
What may you expect from us?!
We plunge focused like the gannet
in the contemporary
promptly pillaging the Planet
for ends pecuniary
Under lame pretext of Progress
while fouling our Species’ Nest
with Technology we obsess
betraying Those Coming Next
But those of us simply not aware
surely can’t be expected to care?!
+)
gannet = large heavily built seabird with a long stout bill who feeds itself by plunging dives for fish
Live events not just exasperating but outright alienating!
In selfish times when facts downplayed
marked by superficiality
when indulgence knows not delay
we seek virtual reality
Must be found swift & easy
to be entertaining
as well snappy & breezy
If not too constraining
Not only just exasperating
but a culture alienating
edited 10/13/23 1610
Weakly we preen watching a screen
So tingly tactile:
tripping on an anthill
dancing a quadrille
working in a steel mill
Instead we vainly preen:
leaned on the Net’s crutch
as watching on a screen
keep us out of touch
Yet we butt in prone to pronounce – come on!
although we know so little from hands-on!
The well-tuned bicycle
Relished the smooth ride home from the shop
trip home with steep hills seems just a hop:
Crystal crisp the shifting
Crankset, gears ticking
Handlebars uplifting
No foreign clicking
Tires whirl p.s.i. correct
hum of the well-oiled chain
Seating position perfect
I glide in the arcane
Wheels well spoked
tightly drawn
Pedals stoked
by brash brawn
All this combine to sweetly
boost the ride home most fleetly
Impatiently waiting for a screen to go ‘ting’
With plagiarized platitudes
we’re mangling logic, facts
in aggrandized attitudes
by hasty keyboard acts
Our attention span
closes in flash
like glamor at Cannes
makes but a splash
Finding peace of mind & soul ain’t our thing
if we await for a screen to go ‘ting’