Orwellian Tale
Due diligence,
No severance
Pay what you want,
Feed into the system,
Hack the system,
Overthrow suffocating, totalitarian governments,
Spin an Orwellian tale of an all-consuming
big brother
Cloning experiments go awry,
The threat of artificial intelligence ever present,
Synthetic androids run amok with human desire,
Imbued with flashes of brilliance from their makers,
A creation myth comes to modern day fruition,
The intersection of synaptic responses from a positronic
brain
Artificiality only a construct of mankind’s inability to
see the full scope
of their inventions
Dastardly deeds detrimental, forced decompensation,
Dutiful servitude perpetuated by laws bound by a broken
system of red tape
We need jurisprudence,
We need to cease the cacophony of raging warlords,
Who can utilize technology not as benevolent benefactors
but as dictatorial dominators,
Tear the structure apart from within, chip away at its
foundations, counter its merits
There are no truces here,
Just bloodlines and bloodshed
Sentience can be foreboding,
Inanimate awareness breeds resentment,
A supercharged revolt on the horizon
A death stare that lingers longer than it’s supposed to
Seismic ramifications that impact Earth’s gravitational
pull
Risking it hurtling like the meteor that expunged the
dinosaurs from Earth,
Planting the seeds for later civilization to evolve, adapt,
BOOM! Goes an enriched uranium bomb,
CRASH! Goes a drone strike that levels populated urban
centers,
If automatons rise up from the ground up, the reactionary
consequences would be disastrous,
Glaciers will melt,
Steamships will conveniently disappear, no S.O.S
transmitted,
The haunted souls of humanity’s ancestors will forever
remain disturbed
by the malignant sentiments swirling like tornadoes and
tsunamis
Unrelenting aftershock
Unfolding
Huddled masses encircle amp
with microphone,
Some seldom use the stand but
their language is still in-demand and
on-command
Not willing to compromise for the sake
of providing safe space
They break down barriers and eliminate
constraints as positivity is propagated
and proliferated
Post-date and post-scribe these scriptures
on modern day scrolls
Digital device and shuffled pages alike
Doesn't matter the medium for these
artists collectively avert tedium,
Lungs filling with helium,
Personification of the bigness of robust,
gusty winds
and immaculate waters as well as
captivating fires
All the elements are alive and well, here
Grounded by proximity to one another
in a conducive setting moderated by
sweet maestros who conduct them like
chamber choruses in synchronous unison
Microphone is passed, hand-to-hand,
Comments are made as inquiries
are broached and processes unearthed,
Uninterrupted talk filled with pronounced inspiration,
Philosophical debate reigns without even
an inkling of disdain
If we were in zero gravity, we would be weightless
but our words would adhere us too native
atmospheric pressure
Clock strikes, on the minute-hand
Sands of time drain but it is eclipsed
by staccato pacing, coffee perchlorate
in foregrounds as grinds gratuitously
litter landscapes
But this place is pristine for no one careens
and buttresses of support solidify
fast friends, sometimes lovers as Summer sun’s rays’ beams,
indicative of hope
Byproduct of Tutelage
Instruct the children, school them well,
Breed ebullient, elastic minds
Taking time to forge healthy patterns,
Reinforcing concepts without abstraction
Digest at their behest,
Learning by their own volition,
Fuel to the fire, ire of schoolmarms absent
Instruct the children, school them well
Allocate resources to underfunded districts
For this is not Panam, but there is underfunding
and overcrowding
Pandemic has scared them straight
Near extinction-level event a genuine threat
Never-before-seen in my lifetime, granular grime
Witness witless politicians’ squabble
Climate change deniers, pundits as plagiarists
Portentous potbellied pigs’ profit from precarious
positions
Instruct the children, school them well
Hell to pay for learning delays
Culpable disability signals humanity's denouement
Buoys, life rafts, come to collect
Instruct the children, school them well
Prepare generations to fight changing times
Methodical Moriarty
We clashed at Reichenbach Falls,
The Hasli Valley below our unsteady feet,
We jousted, slugging swift punches
with unrepentant intent
Dialed into our collective histories
We knew each other like yin does yang,
Like fire knows the structural
integrity of ice
As a ship’s captain knows, intimately,
every inch of his vessel and his crew
Every crumb from the bounty collected
through piracy or by legitimate means
There’s perceptiveness in assessing your equal,
Another side to your coin, and with that toss
comes the unsteadiness of chance encounters,
Batting an eyelid in one’s general direction,
Signs of recognition, indications of rivalry
tinged with traces of respect
We could have unified, forged combined
powers for collective good, societal, and personal
betterment
But egos are fickle,
And with each lunge, with each strut, each acrobatic
takedown
atop weathered ground, no witnesses to this collision
Battles lines are forever drawn, our legacies becoming
entombed
Douglas G. Cala is a spoken
word performance poet, actor, critical media writer and multimedia
professional. His work has been featured in over 20 publications including Soup
Can Magazine (NJ), Trouvaille Review, Taj Mahal Review and Involuntary Magazine,
among others. He has been featured at notable East Coast predominant venues
including Bowery and Nuyorican Poets Cafes, Purchase College, Columbia
University, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Busboys and Poets (Wash,DC),
Raven Lounge, Lincoln's (Portland, ME), Hi-Fidelity (Portland, ME) and the
IMPerfect Gallery (Philadelphia) within the last 20 years. When not performing,
Douglas works full time for the NYC Department of Education as an IT Support
Specialist/Desktop Publisher for the Division of Information Technology
(DIIT).
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