THE PASSIVE CONSUMER
(A Christmas poem)
Don’t you miss the good old days
When the world would end
In a nuclear blaze
With a radioactive glaze?
Now there’s that
Plus death by abortion —
That is death by political contortion.
Death by AI,
Death by pathogen or carcinogen,
Death by cyberattack,
And if we’re lucky
Death by meteor strike.
The chromosomes are conflicted with
Man against man,
Man against woman
(If you can distinguish the two).
Words lack shared meaning,
Men too mean to share,
Forever
This way and that way leaning.
Now answering God’s invitation
Is an option only arrived at
By process of elimination.
So when I feel
I can’t go on
I fall
Into the arms
Of Amazon.
For an hour or two
The pleasure of collection,
Of tossing tomorrow
Beyond recollection,
To muscle through
The answer to the question,
What’s new.
