(Those Held Dear-  my digital music composition)

(Robot Food-  my digital music composition)

 

Changing Canadian Society

As a child

my world was coloured

by a neighbourly ‘our’.

We left our doors unlocked.

We stood at the fence

and spoke full sentences.

We laughed and joked

with local slang.

I learned to savour

language…

and slowly sip

the beauty of words.

As a youth

my world was colored

by a consuming, wasteful

‘me’ and ‘my’.

We lost our ‘u’

and became

dancing skeletons.

We locked our doors.

Neighbors became

a fast, polite ‘hi’

There were a lot of ‘highs’

in those days.

There were a lot of ‘lows’

in those days too.

We lost trust

in all authority.

We mouthed the words

‘Love’ and ‘Peace’

but grew

suspicious.

As an adult

my world is computer-colored

and abbreviated

in the digital instant.

Here I’m just

another ‘u’

ignoring the sunsets

for endless sites

in cyberspace.

My life is

screened.

My city door

is double-locked.

Neighbors rarely greet

or respond.

Their words

sound hollow

and remote.

In the halls, in the streets,

and at work,

all the cameras,

cards, and computers

record our lives…

How long will they

remember us?

I ponder, amused.

The patient ‘u’ is gone.

Frustrated fingers

begin to tap

for five second receipts.

Full sentences

get tuned out

and go unheard.

There is a frenzy

of finger-clicking

and fast-flapping tongues

everywhere now.

Poetry has become

a dozen words

scrambled

and served

to any meaning.

How will the Robots

digest this?

I silently wonder.

January 7, 2011

Shelley Wilson

May your Spirit shine brightly,Shelley