keep it quiet
authority
has called us out
as nuisances
pranksters
and deviants
since birth
to be monitored
by surveillance
for the ongoing
safe operation of system
maximizing efficiency
that finds and discourages
nuisances
pranksters
and deviants
defined only
by criminal records
in households
where teenage angst
congregates around retro turntables.
a colder truth
every year it is harder
to accept the promise
things will get better
articulated in the belief
that a vote counts
while every day costs increase
to power the light
that casts that same
disproportionate shadow.
Geoffrey Aitken writes in Adelaide, on unceded Kaurna land as an awarded poet whose industrial minimalism communicates his ‘lived experience’ for publishers both locally [AUS] and internationally [UK, US, CAN, Fr & CN]. Recently, ‘Wishbone Words’, ‘Impspired’ [Aug ’23 – UK], ‘The Closed Eye Open,’ ‘Maya’s Micros,’ ‘Our Day’s Encounter,’ [US], ‘Oxygen,’ and ‘unusual work’ [AUS]; ‘The Canberra Times’ [Dec ‘22]. He was nominated for the annual Best of the Net anthology in 2022.
Sparks of Calliope 