The Currency Of Democracy

is less the vote, and it's attendant processes,
and much more how easily our desires and ideals
can be commandeered for profits we have no part in.

Beyond The Binaries

that inform sexual behavior - jealousy,
possessiveness and other irrationalities -
lives asexuality, a foreign land to most males.

It is a place of being
where touch is natural,
cool, and yet still sensual.
Where arousal confines itself
to the mind, whilst the body
finds folly in it's actions.

It is oasis I wish I could find,
and then stay in-for a fuller life.

But like many I discovered sex too soon
and in the wrong way, minus consent or enjoyment,
the lack of which made it a thorn in the flesh for, literally, decades.

Now, midlife crisis over,
and old dramas settled
it all seems as important
as it was intentional, that is neither
-just another accident to be dealt with.

What price/value of finding afresh
that wholesome place where I feel 'held'?
Of (re)discovering acceptance?

Division Vs Dignity

This is the choice we have with our labour.

Whether the choice is be divided by it, from within,
as we join the vast assembly lines of production
and consumption, where our identity is taken from us
and reshaped/redefined to fit for us out to be sold
for what market leaders believe we should have.

Or whether by quietly trying to 'opt out'
we lower the overt pressure over us,
instead accepting being misunderstood
by those who organise 'the rat race' better.

Great Turn-Offs Of Our Time (5)

'Heritage centres' - places where history
goes to be embalmed before the public
realise that it has died from their indifference. 

Arta Longa Vita Brevis (2)

Two reindeer in Lascaux caves, France, found 1947. 

Discovered in Lascaux, France, 1947.

Horses from Chauvet Pont D' Arc cave discovered 1994.

A mammoth from Chauvet Pont D' Arc discovered 1994.

The Mondrain Kitchen

And there was me thinking that his main influence on modern life
was how he made people rethink duvet cover designs. 

Uncompetitive As I Am

I don't mind competitiveness, why would I?
As long as other people don't mind
how plain bad I am at being like them.

So often I have seen that when there is less
for people to get competitive about
they increase their competitiveness
as if making other people do without
was an almost existential matter of principle.  

The Wisdom Of George Harrison

Decades after being an ex-member
of the most famous band in the world
Harrison was often asked to sign autographs
for fans who met him by chance.

Being loyal to himself
and accepting of his past
presented him with a conflict.

His best way out of a conflict
that only he truly understood was to think
what day of the week it was as he talked to the fan 
and say 'I don't sign autographs on -----days'
thus appeasing the fan and keeping his dignity.

In future I am going to adopt a similar policy
of discretion towards tele-sales cold callers.

The Impossible Question

Wealth seems to be most enjoyable,
but does it? How can it? Make us empathic
in proportion to the increase in what we have,
except by sharing it out well beyond expectations... 

Who Did I Tread On To Get Where Am Today?

Hypocrites are no more self-made
than are any of the forgetful millionaires
whose well shod feet left their imprint
on far too many people to count,
for them to reach the top of the heap.

Nor is relative poverty 'self made' either.
But for those who live cheek by jowl
with forced frugality living well will be less
about wealth, and more about conscience.

Selective Viewing

The bigger the picture
the more ugliness it contains
-that is if it is balanced-
which dictates how much
we don't want see any of it
for fear of being overwhelmed.  

Take Care Of Your Despair; It May Be All You Have Left

I know how he feels, I read his diaries, in work breaks
when I was did a relatively lucrative but pointless temporary job.
I felt much better being pointless for a longer period of time,
and for less money, on terms I could choose and live with.

Hoarders

are the people who try to predict the future
through what they store from the past,
but time very rarely gifts them with accuracy
in their predictions with the goods they collect.

On Quantity

Religions are always total world views
with nothing to see 'outside' of them.

Wars are always total too-
whether pursued via trade or arms.
Or through policies of isolation.

But peace is always partial,
conditional-it is never complete.  

Sore Winners Make For Bad Headlines

Whenever the news of the day
gets tribal, reports a tribal story
from the perspective of the tribe
that it is happening to
then often I retreat from it.

I don't know what else to do
when I can't listen properly
for the taste of sour grapes
expressed in the victors voice
as s/he complains about the detail.

Heritage Centres

are places where history goes to be embalmed
before the public realise that it has died
because of their separation and indifference
to how the people in history actually lived. 

Invitations To Inconsistency

like to travel together, e.g. being a consumer
of popular goods whilst being a participant
in a Representative Democracy, merely
for inattentively listening to what passes for 'news'
and not swearing at the ineptitude of what you hear.

The inconsistency happens so easily
when folks vote for both lower taxes,
whether centrally or locally levied,
and for better and more local services
for people their own age and disposition.

The older they get the more people expect
things to happen through inconsistent support
until the inconsistency they rely on sinks other people
before it comes for them.

Finding Grace

whilst in decline
is a life consuming habit.

Modest Personal Ad

'Lost' sock would like to meet similar,
but differently stripped, for pairing up
-for that leg up towards a firmer foothold in life.

Lead Yourself?

Unless you are a well kept dog,
or are otherwise collared by comfort
that keeps you, the hardest way to live
is where you claim to be a lead for others
whilst denying being lead by them.

Give Me A New Broom That Stays Clean

Every newly elected government gets cast
as 'a new broom/a fresh start' by a cliched press,
who are always keen to refresh their cliches.

But every brush gets rapidly clogged up
by promises that get fatally compromised
before they get anywhere near completion.

But still, the promise of fresher rule lingers
long after the cliches get to thicken.
The image of freshness delays citizens
seeing that their needs are being met
with greater reticence than before
until the sense of staleness is everywhere.


The folks that I would like to see at the top
would never oversell the unity of their party,
and they would get elected
with the minimum mis-selling
and remain highly competent,
They would promise less and deliver it
to provide stability where a government works
much harder than other governments are seen to work
with their highly processed photo-opportunities.

Modern Life

is like its older versions,
but faster than the past, and increasing in speed;  
In both we buy detachment, create dependence
and deny the very personal nature of the debt
that uses us, by our saying that we that we use it.

The Wrong Medicine

Not every medicament/treatment for mental imbalance
is to be accepted at face value, and taken as scripted
without question about possible side effects.

Us And Them

I often feel out of my depth with other people.

When I meet people I don't know what to say
that would please them and make me their friend.
When I am obliged to speak the right words won't come.
Awkwardness takes over and blunts my speech.

Because of this I no longer expect to be wanted,
much less liked, though I can have a fine time on-line,
where pretending to like/be liked is the order of the day.

I console myself, up to a point, by concidering
the thousands of years through which dogs have befriended humans
and the humans have not recognized the depth of companionship on offer to them.

To their loss humans continually under-rate
how dogs find more companionship in us than we see in them.

Great Turn-Offs Of Our Time (4)

'I have listened very carefully....'
-it usually means that the speaker
has been careful to make sure
that they heard nothing
in the course of compiling
their government report
that challenged their prejudices.

No Time For The Past, No Time For The Present

When the lives we live discard all time for contemplation
then the pietism older people remember seems outdated,
because it was founded on a lack of entertainment technology.
Technology then makes itself the task of reinventing that past.

This is where our mass mis-remembering
of how the past actually worked makes kitsch inevitable,
which takes the grace out of the past and the present.

A Matter Of Carrot And Stick

Social class is a matter of carrot and stick.

Different carrots and different sticks
for the different social classes,
but familiar divisions between them.

We can still ask what we might be
but for these divisions?
And what shared life remains
between reward and punishment? 

Education

is the older and happily blind
leading the too-young-to-know
who actually can still see
into a blindness of mind
that for both is meant to pass for 'a life'.

Democracy Revised

What can we do when one person's 'gridlock'
becomes somebody else's 'accountability'?

When both behave like witnesses to an accident
and both have highly partial views
with wildly different accounts of how,
when, and where the democratic accident started?

However much they agree or disagree
the debate will make 'democracy' go on for longer....

The Unobservant Serviellance Society

Not that him being bored will stop him knowing more than you realize,
or help you know how best to be curious about him, to make him watch you less.
 Because we can all be bored and unobservant, all too easily......