Mindless Scrolling
I sometimes find myself scrolling addictively through social media. I shouldn’t but I do. Some contributors there produce the most virulent and abusive bile against others for no reason other than these platforms actively encourage it. The viciousness and level of lying beggars belief. But I am guilty of supporting it by reading this garbage. I must stop this stupid practice. In the meantime, this piece surfaced, tongue in cheek. So read, enjoy, pass it on and give me feedback.
Clichés Undone
Where there are two or three gathered in my name,
you may be sure they are tearing strips off me.
My ears are so red, they stop the traffic in both directions.
Conversation and cackles degenerate into pure malice,
and the assassination of my character continues,
as they eviscerate every element of my being,
to the point where even I do not recognise myself.
They have created a new Frankenstein
to be feared, avoided but also terrorised.
And the worst, the very worst - the destruction
is completed by using very tight-lipped niceness -
the most silent lethal weapon on the planet.
Peter Clarke
Comments
John Matthews
Hi Peter,
07.11.2022 11:14
A great observation! Social media can be a scary place... I also need to reduce my time there
Hugs,
John.x
Leo
06.11.2022 16:24
A great one, Peter, in the context you describe. I don't read social media myself, I doubt my equilibrium could stand it. 'The balance of his mind disturbed' yes, I think it would be.
Jack Abell
Yes, gossip is a weapon of mass destruction.
In my business as well as personal life I have zero tolerance.
06.11.2022 15:59
Latest comments
25.11 | 22:15
Grief is experience through the mundane. Simple but powerful. The accompanying image really compliments the poem.
07.11 | 11:14
Hi Peter,
A great observation! Social media can be a scary place... I also need to reduce my time there
Hugs,
John.x
06.11 | 16:24
A great one, Peter, in the context you describe. I don't read social media myself, I doubt my equilibrium could stand it. 'The balance of his mind disturbed' yes, I think it would be.
06.11 | 15:59
Yes, gossip is a weapon of mass destruction.
In my business as well as personal life I have zero tolerance.
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And What About . . .
I have neglected this for far too long, and now it is time again. But what to write about, what poem to share? The world is packed with catastrophic possibilities. Such choices: dementia/genocide colluder or extreme narcissism in the White House; a hung parliament in the UK; the reunification of the USSR with a tyrannical megalomaniac at its head; the eradication of a race by a genocidal government in Gaza; the African continent reduced to bankruptcy and regression to male tribalism; in Ireland, even with an appalling electoral turnout the routing of the far right and Sinn Féin may offer some comfort except we face another FF/FG fiasco. Mother Nature rumbles on its rampage, raging against the human species’ abject destruction of the planet’s habitat. What the . . .
Being facetious right now is my only defence against absolute despair. So read, comment, pass it on, and send feedback.
City Walking and Cycling take 680,000
cars per day off the road
Irish Time Heading
More and more folk, cycling and walking, may
keep gases from greenhouses further at bay
This newspaper heading illustrates vividly
thousands of cyclists and walkers assiduously
stopping some cars on their journey
pushing them aside - making drivers quite surly
Mountains of metal - like scrapyards of sculpture
keep bicycle lanes quite safe - at this juncture
The new revolution is well underway
don’t get behind wheels - hear what they say:
Cars and their fumes play a very big part
the smell is quite phew don’t mention cow farts
Wear out your shoe leather walking
greet travellers with smiles while you’re talking
Force councils to make better spaces
to go out and about roaming those places
where vitamin D, and oxygen from trees
fill our lungs and our brains so we see
how to save us and this magical planet
except for some vicious old tyrants goddammit
Peter Clarke, 18th March 2024
