The Bedroom Is The New Dangerous Place

In the analogue world the bedroom
was a place for parents to feel safe
leaving youths to play their music
at a distance from the parents' ears
where the benefits were mutual,
whilst  what teenagers might have thought
about the sex that they should not be
thinking about, much less having,
could be left unasked about;
to ask might make the family
seem like the blind leading the blighted. 

Nowadays teenagers have the world,
at least the world of the internet,
at their beck and call in their rooms
where room service is world service.

There they redesign how the world
blames youths for being uniformed,
whilst it tries to make sure
they know too little to be dangerous.

On The Attempted Life Within The Body

For the young, wanking
existed to take the wanting out of waiting.
Substitutes for real sex took away the intensity
of impatience for the fullness of companionship
which our parents said they had
through the sharing of property.

The young were part of the property of the parents,
fit to be divided by what they wanted being with-held.

But what to do in middle age when alone?
When you are no longer a catch for anyone?
And whatever people want you for,
they want less of you than they did before.

Does this leave us united in present times,
somewhat late in life? Or divided by our pasts?
Whatever happens, the future means shrinkage...

Overselling Instruction In Incompetence

When I look back on the 'careers advice'
that I was offered I am more than struck
at how naive I was. Perhaps I had to be
that unknowing, to never question
what I was commended to do.

Such things could only be offered to anyone
whilst they were too young to recognize,
and too weak to refuse, high condescension,

The managers of the training schemes
gained far more from what they ran
than those they were running it for,
or for that matter future employers.

A clearer example of a sows ear
being mis-sold as a silk purse
would be rather hard to find.