Babylon (poem)

(written during university in the early 1980s)

Living in the material world

Or our instant breakfast, quick fix,

Subdivided suburban pseudo-culture

You're another product of our throwaway society

Governed by TV

Forsaking the world and all its gifts

To live in an artificial world

Created by man

Concrete and metal, steel and glass

Chlorinated water and asphalt grass

So busy experiencing life

That you never learn to live

The value neutral prophets

Of the creeping meatball urge

Consume, consume, consume

You only see your fellow creatures

In aquariums and zoos

Sharing your hermetically-sealed cocoon

Forests fall before the blitzkrieg

Of technology and progress

Leaving only scenery for decoration

Nothing remaining behind

For the unborn yet to be

And you call this “development”

As if anyone could improve

On the handiwork of God

Living life as a spectator sport

In a casket with a view

You see the world through the lens

Of TV cameras, edited and spliced

As fleeting as the screen's image

Sixty blips per second

Until you change the channel

If death is not real then neither is life

And no one ever dies here

They simply pass away

Only to return in reruns

Leaving unanswered the question

Of what happens next

The river of your life runs shallow

And you’ve never learned to swim

So feeling empty and alone you pray

To your plastic Jesus Christ

Patron of free enterprise and the American way

You take the twelve steps to salvation

The latest highway to heaven

So that you can feel good about yourself again

And validate the soul that isn’t there

But the mutual masturbation

Of modern day religion

Leaves you no answer

And gives you no clue

To what’s behind the veil

In the holy of holies

So when your soul looks to the west

And the owl calls your name

What then?

Technical Difficulty:  Please Stand By