The Failing Alchemy Of 'Entertainment'

In day of old
the stars were made of gold,
or at least of sustained publicity.
There were very few of them
to be worshipped by so many
through the films, books, and songs
that made them luminous
and sometimes numinous too.

Now the human star machine has stopped.
We are all much smaller stars now,
each creative in our own small ways,
each set in our own media firmament.

The light is shared out in smaller portions.

For all that we are still no more
than oxygen, carbon, hydrogen,
phosphorous, calcium and nitrogen
-all trying to do something important
whilst we are waiting to be recycled.