7 Comments
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Wesam's avatar

A thoughtful and haunting poem that reveals the tension between consumer comfort and the persistence of historical memory.

Reginald Duquesnoy's avatar

Capitalism transforms man and nature into commodities...in the wake of the poet, awakens the revolutionary...but let us not succumb to the myth of "le bon sauvage" to pull out of our own alienation. Vijay's daily struggle & life rhymes with his poetry.

Samuel Malkemus's avatar

Lovely poem. It paints the weight of colonial economy and the untouched wildness of the human spirit that dwells within.

Henri Mellett's avatar

"People buy things they had not intended to buy.

They leave stores carrying objects that already seem familiar,

as though they had owned them before entering."

Astonishing how you have captured the transference of religious feeling to the alienated product of labor, so there's actually two senses to this, the one of the power of advertising and hegemony, and the other of labor recognising its own product through the liturgy and paraphernalia of marketing palaces...

I believe I could help you create a very lucrative market for false noses and boob implants, are you game, my captain?

Henri Mellett's avatar

I looked up from the little cup of my espresso

And saw you, oh my captain,

Your ancient lapis lazuli gaze

Embracing with twinkling eyes

That already stale, fresh purchase,

The sadness of all that polished opulence

Defiantly denying the descending night,

And i creaked up and shuffled off,

Wallet emptied by that overpriced espresso and tip,

But bulging with the Xanadu

Of your fresh brilliance

To fill my plate for days!

(And the harried waitress who served me had such kind and gentle eyes,

But it was clear there was another world

She would rather be)

Stop the Empire's avatar

Brilliant. Gracias.

Bandile Mabuza's avatar

Great poem. It reveals that what we call civilization also comes with costs, and show how we continue to be stucked in the past as humans. There however things we must embrace on civilization while there are those who must be criticized.