Truth To Power
Winning Entry by jaguar
Truth To Power
You shrink this country step-by-step into
the white-tinted past, tucked
between embroidered English rose sheets,
where there’s no one left alive
to contradict your false memory.
I screw my mind into books
make mental sawdust of their pages,
catch green glimpses of other lives,
choose how much I feel for
the tender matrices you sever.
This world no more concrete
than sheets of filo pastry piled as flat
as people used to believe the earth was,
cracking under the strain
of co-existing.
You can’t claim it’s leadership
if they follow by default.
You shrink this country step-by-step into
the white-tinted past, tucked
between embroidered English rose sheets,
where there’s no one left alive
to contradict your false memory.
I screw my mind into books
make mental sawdust of their pages,
catch green glimpses of other lives,
choose how much I feel for
the tender matrices you sever.
This world no more concrete
than sheets of filo pastry piled as flat
as people used to believe the earth was,
cracking under the strain
of co-existing.
You can’t claim it’s leadership
if they follow by default.
Featured Entry by quietmandave
Kaleidoscope
Chaos theory is wrong.
I keep flapping
my butterfly wings, but
however hard I try
I can never
create the storm.
What if a thousand, a million
from the order Lepidoptera
beat in unison, constructive
interference,
tip on tip,
bellows to the wind.
And where would the shockwave
make landfall?
And who,
if they could channel
the power,
would choose to use it for good?
Chaos theory is wrong.
I keep flapping
my butterfly wings, but
however hard I try
I can never
create the storm.
What if a thousand, a million
from the order Lepidoptera
beat in unison, constructive
interference,
tip on tip,
bellows to the wind.
And where would the shockwave
make landfall?
And who,
if they could channel
the power,
would choose to use it for good?
Featured Entry by Maje
HISTORY IS DEAD!
They said
those cults of the expert
the legions of technocrats
economists/bankers.
Years then decades in control
in studios suited up
voices soothing
repeating ad nauseam
everything is fine
look away.
And we the people sitting
thinking a linear progression -
my granddad worked the land
my children will be doctors.
Drinking the cool aid
as bits of country fell away
feralised.
Left to fend for themselves
the Detroit rust belt
keeping no ones trousers up.
(But humming away in the background
almost imperceptible our title music:-
"The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live. "...........)
Further deep into the heart of darkness
Vicodined water supplies
making Friday night lights
ex high school athletes
emasculated
unemployed.
Pain free now
with no antidote
dreaming forever
of that perfect touchdown
that perfect cheerleader
and ever and ever and ever.....
In their slumping shadows
sit obsolete factories
sit obsolete promises
sit obsolete parents in front of vomiting tv's:-
Dah dah dah dah dah Macdonalds
vursprung durch technik
thigh-oh-ta!
Screaming off their heads
between real housewives of..
hoarders
and 600lb's
don't become one of us
get the f.. k out!
"You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out"
She sits alone in a run down park
beside an old tree
ghosts swinging.
The bitter fruit at her feet
squeezed lemons.
Exhausted she is from a daily struggle to inspire.
Quiet now -
Thinking about?
How she should not speak out
leave it to others to tell the truth.
But I can't she whispers
the revolution has already started in my head.
"The revolution takes place in your mind. Once you change your mind and decide that there's something wrong that you want to effect that's when the revolution takes place. "
A person standing alone
turns to the seat of power
and says enough.
Now the revolution really is live bro............
(all sentences in quotation marks are from the poet/musician Gil Scott-Heron)
They said
those cults of the expert
the legions of technocrats
economists/bankers.
Years then decades in control
in studios suited up
voices soothing
repeating ad nauseam
everything is fine
look away.
And we the people sitting
thinking a linear progression -
my granddad worked the land
my children will be doctors.
Drinking the cool aid
as bits of country fell away
feralised.
Left to fend for themselves
the Detroit rust belt
keeping no ones trousers up.
(But humming away in the background
almost imperceptible our title music:-
"The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live. "...........)
Further deep into the heart of darkness
Vicodined water supplies
making Friday night lights
ex high school athletes
emasculated
unemployed.
Pain free now
with no antidote
dreaming forever
of that perfect touchdown
that perfect cheerleader
and ever and ever and ever.....
In their slumping shadows
sit obsolete factories
sit obsolete promises
sit obsolete parents in front of vomiting tv's:-
Dah dah dah dah dah Macdonalds
vursprung durch technik
thigh-oh-ta!
Screaming off their heads
between real housewives of..
hoarders
and 600lb's
don't become one of us
get the f.. k out!
"You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out"
She sits alone in a run down park
beside an old tree
ghosts swinging.
The bitter fruit at her feet
squeezed lemons.
Exhausted she is from a daily struggle to inspire.
Quiet now -
Thinking about?
How she should not speak out
leave it to others to tell the truth.
But I can't she whispers
the revolution has already started in my head.
"The revolution takes place in your mind. Once you change your mind and decide that there's something wrong that you want to effect that's when the revolution takes place. "
A person standing alone
turns to the seat of power
and says enough.
Now the revolution really is live bro............
(all sentences in quotation marks are from the poet/musician Gil Scott-Heron)
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