Snapshot

Maybe we light up the night with cell phones 
because we’re afraid of the dark to come. 
Constantly filming, snapping, recording; 
in a world that will finally succumb. 

We beat the drum of, I want more – right now! 
An endless supply of gadgets and crap. 
Hoping to drive out loneliness and pain 
with the latest game, song or fancy app. 

Running out of time, loading up landfills 
with things that are supposed to save us time. 
It’s chucked in the pile of not good enough 
on our decomposing mountain to climb. 

We’re rewired to store less information 
with electronic diaries to prompt us. 
The alarm beeps – remember this birthday;
as we photograph our poached egg on toast.

We no longer have to think for ourselves.
Through Facebook images, we all touch base. 
We feel good for a while; then we scroll past
desperation in a starving boy’s face.

I struggle to find a solution now.
Pushing a trolley up the shopping aisle,
buying plastic-covered, waxed, shiny fruit.
Drive an old metal car filled with petrol. 

I don’t know how to make bread or a fire. 
I’m hopelessly in the dark to survive. 
Can’t catch a fish, grow a crop, knit a cloth. 
Searching my phone for how to stay alive.  

How do we create change in this program? 
A systematic pattern in our minds. 
A deep innate longing stirs to break free. 
A straitjacket of torment, fear that binds. 

Who has the answers to help man survive?
To heal the planet, the creatures expired! 
What’s the use-by date in this mess we made?
Best-before extinction phase is required.

We film how we grew our carrots and corn.
Ride bikes, plant trees; commodity exchange.
But the face framed by our iPad selfie
is the place to start our crusade of change.

©Angela Woolcott, 2017

Snapshot was written in 2015 and originally published on my first blog in 2017. I wrote it back in 2017 when I was struggling to accept the program of modern consumption we all seem to live in.