Molecular Distortion

Gary Beck/Molecular Distortion

 

Dumbing Down

The rush of technology

in the Information Age

has left many behind.

The switch from horse and buggy

to the automobile

separated those

who couldn’t catch up

to the new ride

and eager drivers.

The challenge to transition

is an intelligence test

that so many fail

because they can’t accept

the shock of the new,

the terrible afflictions

that prevent evolving

to different conditions

that alter our daily lives,

at least those of us

smart enough to adjust.

 

 

Human Nature

It defies understanding,

that many people prefer

violent confrontations

to peaceful coexistence,

regardless of the cost

in lives and treasure lost.

Yet we repeat the pattern

over and over again,

when it’s always easier

to destroy then preserve

our children, homes, countries

in the need to kill enemies.

In the lust for power

and our greatest foe, greed,

we are always willing

to resort to bloody war,

for at best fleeting gains

that temporarily sate

bloated appetites.

 

 

Diminished Ability

It gets more difficult

to get up each morning,

do my hygiene,

do my exercise,

make my breakfast,

shop for necessities,

rest on the way home,

hope I don’t get mugged

by a vicious predator

taking advantage

of infirm elders

no longer capable

of self defense,

a growing problem

in a chaotic land

of declining values

that make the aged

easy pickings.

 

 

Ebbing Resource

I watch the tide go in and out

at the East River estuary.

I do not think the river knows

how or why we polluted it,

but as any work of nature

it responds to assault,

so as we kill the river

it kills its dependents

in the water, in the air

and as the fish die out

the birds that feed on them

no longer have a choice

and must beg for food from people.

 

More and more bodies of water

have become so tainted

that our rivers, seas, oceans

are no longer blue.

We do not understand

that life is connected

to our frail water supply,

while the limited minds

who determine policies,

too dumb to allow repair

of unsafe bridges, unsafe roads,

do not protect our water,

like they don’t protect our air

and seem to be oblivious

to our diminishing future.

 

 

News

There was no media

when Athens lost

the Peloponnesian War,

at the fall of Rome,

the battle of Hastings,

Charles I lost his head.

Only word of mouth,

parchment, tablets,

(not the IPad, dodo)

public opinion formed

by those in power,

for no one else mattered.

Today we have

world wide news

from BBC, CNN,

China Daily

and national sources,

all spewing misinformation,

I mean information

that may or may not be true.

I don’t have enough facts

to decide what’s fake news

and it doesn’t help

that reporters

majored in deception,

most not understanding

they dance to the tune

of puppeteers,

who unlike most of us

will do anything

to get what they want,

guiding the media

liberally,

conservatively,

to prepare the public mind

to dutifully believe

the news of the day.

 

Molecular Distortion is an unpublished collection that looks at the breaking down of function in a complex society, going through difficult sociological changes: 'Dumbing Down', 'Human Nature', 'Diminished Ability', 'Ebbing Resource', 'News'.