Write the unlimited,
the gifted uplifted.
Flow like golden ships
in Cabernet seas.
Shine like magenta stones
clinging to a chalice.
Wish the sun to cool you
and the moon to warm you.
Think explosive, and kaboom!
The world I see is divided,
misguided, and a lie.
I see a vaccinated nation,
waiting for an unvaccinated nation
to catch up, play patient
and end the frustration.
I see so much misinformation
that my mind has gone on vacay.
A bright holiday, with dismay,
that someday might come back and say
Hey, everything is ok, but right now,
it seems a little patronizing to the nation
to say everything is ok.
And it is frustration
boiling over with those vaccinated
and the unvaccinated.
I took the stick.
It has kept me from getting sick.
But others didn’t, staying persistent,
that the big business of sickness
brings us to the brink of this madness.
The land of the free and the home of the brave,
sounds more and more of a brand
Red and white merchandise.
Blue and red party lines
and picket signs.
And as I grow older,
I see a little less into the future.
I see myself growing,
gaining more college,
braced with more knowledge,
then increasing debt
that takes half my check.
Insurances for diseases
I don’t have yet.
An IRA ’cause nothing
is guaranteed.
My retirement,
at 65 seems like a lie.
65. That’s 2035!
Will I be in the unemployment line,
soup line, or will I shine.
So, as I write this.
How do I make sense of this?
What is this?

You want it all, but you can’t have it.
We want the truth, but we can’t manage.
If we knew it at all,
would we want to go through with it?
Even questioning it sounds stupid.
But now, what do we do with it?

What is it?
And how do I even live with it.
It’s a spider in a sewer.
It’s blood-signed rent checks.
It’s a clown serving billions.
It’s diabetes dwelling in our snapchats.

What is it?
It’s sex in a laundromat.
It’s commercials.
It’s visions of your day
when you are resting.
It’s like your dreams are now television
and even when you are sleeping,
you are scrolling.

That’s what it is.
It’s a technological supernova
drunk off waveform WIFI,
and it is scary as hell.

But there is no other option.
I don’t see one.
Unplug, unsubscribe?
Uninstall? Move?
There is a love I have
for the comfort of technology
at the same time

I would miss it if one day
it was all taken from me.
A real Catch 22.

I can’t imagine a world
without WIFI.
You wouldn’t be reading this poem.
It’s kind of stupid
to be complaining
about something I am
completely reliant on.

I guess that’s what it is.
It’s a complete untrust
for the mother
that is nursing us.

 

Jason Wright is the editor and founder of Oddball Magazine. His column appears weekly. His third book, Train of Thought 2: Almost Home is available now.