Paradoxically

When you can see your blind spots
then your are no longer as blind,
because you are no longer not seeing
what your blind spots once stopped you
from recognising for what it was.  

Unethical Work

Many work for what they achieve
by letting the letting the work ethic
stream them into career structures
that accept them as human beings
and turn them into drones.

Being a drone is what makes
the life of being pushed into debt
in the pursuit of wealth seem liveable

Eventually they become tired drones
and as former humans they keep on trying
but they don't have strength, enough
to keep on being competitive;
they get taken out or pensioned off. 

I will work to achieve less; keep me out of debt.
What I have, compared with others,
let me own outright. No need for jealousy. 

The Omniscience Of Uncertainty

We all like the idea of good health,
and longevity whilst living well
-who would want to live long and badly?

Though that is something we all will,
unwittingly, inflict on other people.

But the Covid has brought us up short
and made us think harder about what we rely on.

Before the virus we had a certainty
and we lived with choice and plenty.
Now, through the science of vaccines, 
we again seek choice and certainty,
but now there is none.

Yes, there is a vaccine,
in fact there are several.
And yes, the jab will stop us
from getting the virus
in limited circumstances, 

But even after two doses
we can still be carriers
who can infect other people
particularly the unvaccinated.

The only certainty the vaccine has given us
is that good science is always logical
and the more logical we seek to be
the more illogical we will prove to be,
and we don't know how little we know
in our assumed omniscience.

The Club With No Name

The first rule of any secret society
is to not talk about it with anyone
whom has not shown the secret sign
that confirms their fellow membership. 

When I was growing up
masculinity was the secret club
that I was denied the membership of.

I had no idea what the signs were
or that having a character that strangers
could not read was the clearest proof of membership.

Men never said how their membership
of this hidden club was proven 
by what was between their legs,
as opposed to what the ladies had,
but that was the least of the many facts
that they strove to never speak about.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, that
I learnt how keep secrets alright.

My secrets were of the sort
where without thinking it though
I was the one who was done to, 
rather than the doer. And masculinity, 
indeed all proper regulatory authority, 
was always much more about the doing
than it was about in any way consulting 
the done to, done for, or done over. 

We hid in plain sight
as men, swollen with pride, 
shared their membership
of their masculinity club with me.

As I obliged them, 
so they signed me in 
and they kept my membership
of their club a secret from me;
they liked my lack of choices.

When finally I could choose
there was only one choice left;
leave forever and never be like them. 

Quote for Holocaust Memorial Day

A German journalist
at the Frankfurt book fair
asked Art Spiegelman
on the publication of  'Maus'

'Isn't it in bad taste to make a comic book of Auschwitz?'

'No' Spiegelman replied, 'Auschwitz was in bad taste'. 

How Capitalism Feeds Itself

and humans are it's carrion.
But Capitalism needs it's humans to be willing
for it's appetite to be replete
for even the short length of time
that humans make that possible. 

My Imaginary Friend

Is a story that everybody knows.

It is a story we all told by persuaders

who want us to do and buy the things

which we naturally 

(and properly) resist doing.
 

This is how the persuader's line goes

-'My imaginary friend does this and that

so why don't you do those things too?'

This is what advertisers resort to
when selling via breaking pretend taboos
no longer works, from overuse.

There are ways out of all this pretence.

The first is the off button, for which

we have to be patient to begin
to enjoy the silence that follows.

The second is to be more selective

about who we accept as our friends

and picky to the point of cynical

about the media we curate and accept.

The last is to accept that the friendships

that are meant to last the length of our lives

rely on us being honest with ourselves

about what we are not, and never were,

for what remains as our lives shrink to endure .