Tag Archives: social justice

Socially Mediated Tyranny

July 11, 2020 nyonglema 2 Comments

Rivers have always flowed from frosty 
Caps on lonely mountains, down through tired
Valleys, washing debris, trees, and bringing 
Life wherever they go. Splashing around, 
The water winds round rocks that would stop
It. 
But it continues, tunneling through hills, 
Unstoppable. 

The river of life gets dashed against rock
But also smiles round the same rock. 
Smile, camera. 

You switch on your phone and the f
Calls your fingers into a world of glossy 
Glam. Flowers are more flowery, 
And trees are more greenery, 
And meals are more beefery, 
But teal seem to be in the tealery
As each image tells you this truth: 

"You ain't sh....opping at the right shops! 
Your meals are too ordinary. Even your 
Guardian angel must be a frail-looking 
Nerd without the brains to match the title, 
But with just the brawn that can't lift an axle. 
You too don't have the six pack to share 
With friends; the thumb icon seems to point 
Down just for your life, Hearts for their smiles, 
Smiles, camera. 

Who cares where the river runs really straight, 
Uneventful, looking lazy, like mere luck? 
My Geography teacher, with his spitting glasses
Told me (while I covered my face from, you know...)
And showed me the meanders, the rapids, the water-
Falls, the deltas, oxbow lakes, tributaries, 
And I asked: "What do we call this straight part?"
And as he spoke, my mind floated away to possible names:
"Never on social media episodes"
"No need to take a picture moments"
"Too ordinarily nice for TV"
"Guttural silly laughter, not smiles"
"No smiles, no camera"

For we only pause to take a breath at 
The punctuation, 
That fills the river, the river, of life. 
Then we extrapolate from those singular 
Moments of beauty, happiness, whateverness, 
And assume that the tree bark is just 
As green as the leaves we glimpsed.
Walt Disney figured this out really fast, 
And Mickey danced on the pages. 

You ain't sh... owing your talent. 
They are. 
Because that picture said so, 
And a less-than-a-second capture of light
Is worth more than the ebbs and flows of your life,
Like that punctuation wasn't part of 
A longer sentence... 

Oh! That we may all see that
The river of life gets dashed against rock
But always smiles round the same rock.
Smile, camera

(c) nyonglema

love

Vestigial

May 9, 2020 nyonglema Leave a comment

What got you here, won't get you there.
-Marshall Goldsmith
-------------------

Curls of hair tumbling down my chest, 
Falling from my neck, The black on my face
Say I'm ready for battles to mate. 

Each strand whispers to the other: 
"I'll protect you from the strikes", 
As they expect a foe, similar to me, 
To punch, bite and scratch. Protect the vitals: 
A cushion for blows to the head, 
Where the control tower plans the win strategy; 
Another for blows to the chest, 
Where energy is supplied to the weaponised sinews;
Another for blows to the groin, 
Where the prize of all this mayhem sits safely. 

The times have changed, though, and such fights, 
Are not the path to procreation. 
Neither are our socialist governments
A path to independence. Protecting us
From blows from foes, similar to us, 
They once curled, and some were cut out. 
They took the blows, that we may be
Free.

But, the times have changed and such fights 
Are not the path to civilisation. 
They seek to control the head, 
They seek to constrict the chest
They seek to conscript the groin. 
They give the blows, that we may be
Free to do their chores. 

In truth, the times have changed, 
And even if the policies look great
It's time to go bald. 

(c) nyonglema