The New Oligarchs

Slam poems on current issues. Better when said aloud— find both recordings here.

Do You Remember

do you remember when
it was all about free rhythms
instead of repeat algorithms

when
people had to tell you how to get there
nights in bed had neither bell nor glare

do you remember when
your problems were yours to muddle in
and you didn’t have that double-chin

when
you couldn’t make an excuse to bail
because there was no SMS or e-mail

do you remember when
we still found time to admire
others, without the fibre wire

when
we had a world of meal-time compassion
instead of real-time compression?

i remember when
we would drive through the back streets
and just look at _each other_ in seats

when
you would stroke the rings of my soft hair
non-stop; there were no rings of iSoftware

back when
the future was safe in sci-fi
the past came by ear, not wi-fi
and the present was still the only thing in hi-fi.

but then we gave it all
to the new oligarchs
and their tech parks

just a handful of suited white men
who now get to say you’re wrong or right when
you post symbols in their gated little codepen

monitors made in the name of security
but whose guns are shining so luridly
when we ask for the things we so stupidly
signed ourselves over for, lucidly
cities covered in CCTV
faces mapped by the CCP and Xi

technology is indeed our evolution
but when it fails our revolution
it is neither salvation, nor solution

and all this light and noise pollution
that we bought in the name of convenience
has us caught in a game of lenience
between what we said we wanted instead
and that which, as of yet,
we just. don’t. seem. to get.

They Said

tell me how sick you feel
they said

it’s not that big a deal
they said

but now we’ll count with zeal
to prove to you, the fear is real
they said

a world living in lockdown
numbers being chalked down
fear bringing the block down
masks on every street you walk down
stay at home, listen to the mock clown
‘numbers going up makes the doc frown’
they said

the cure will be worth the disease
they said
and all the lives that were seized
they said
but as for the apartments that are leased
your debts owed will not be released
for we really must tame the beast
and the poor may starve, but at least
at least…
the rich, oh we will always feast
they said

now I know every game has to have a winner
but the poor never get their chicken dinner
because now it’s only the winner
who makes the games,
their worker bees
just numbers and names
and as the market waxes and wanes,
their stocks see only gains and gains
force a man to be the saint of sanes
and you’ll make him a sinner, for pains
that can’t be bought
or rented
will only be fought
or resented
until we are caught
and lamented
these protests wrought
are for years fomented
by those who sought
only power, cemented

and don’t forget who gets the benefits
of all these extra megs and bits
their cronies sat in all the cabinets
so that when their share splits
to keep margins high with their unfair hits
they’ll still get their own tax bracket
they call it zero, what a fucking racket

and now with all my restrictions unrestricted
i must say it’s really quite well-scripted
how we won’t see, even when the veil is lifted
that it was all never really encrypted
that the data was actually sold and sifted
packaged up to convince us we were gifted
when all the while, the world hadn’t shifted

because the only ones who come out on top
are still only
the ones who had it all along… full stop.