;)
They may not go gently
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 5:22PM What if we take them
the celebrities
all to one place?
Because the problem is not
so much that they exist
- all right, I get it, people like them, it makes them feel safe or that things are in their right place
the problem is
that they pop up everywhere
their whitened teeth and maniacal grins
and ironic humour and
over developed senses of self
frightening those of us who are looking for something else
- some other anchor or balloon in life
They leak into waters where they are not supposed to be
infecting art and literature
seeping into home cooking
clawing their tentacles across
dog walking and tree planting and adventure hiking and asylum seeking
Leaving no place sacred any more for the ordinary
unremarkable unrecognisable quiet ticking
not much happening here thanks and we like it that way
of what used to pass for every day life
So here’s what I think
We take them
- lure them, trick them, drug them, beat them, promise them, herd them, flatter them, feed them – however we get them there I don’t care, there are smart people around who know what to do, how to motivate and move them, satisfy and soothe them, just get them into ONE place and cyclone fence it and guard dog it and electromagnify it and then shut the gigantic gate and lock it
And we will still watch them
that channel will run 24/7
- more if that smart person can work out how to pummel extra hours into each day
So they will be on – they will always be on – so they won’t feel sad or strange or bad and the people who need to see them don’t have to pine or whine or panic or go mad
But for the rest of us
- those who have had to stop turning on the TV and opening the paper and walking out the door and going to the market for fear of the constant bombardment of their insidious smiling presence (“Oh look at me! I once learned some words off by heart and they put me on the telly and now I have an opinion about everything from Al Jazirah to jelly!”)
For us
finally
there may be
some peace
Cause we know that channel’s there
and we can turn it on
those dark lonely nights when we miss their shiny lights
But the rest of the time
we can get back
to the ordinary chaos
of our blissfully uninteresting, monotonous, uncelebrated
lives