Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be

The day is coming
The end of money; of coins and notes
The end of worthless tokens and vouchers
The cheap metal and printed paper
That we value so highly

Look and you will see evidence
Advertising: Cash is spent

Listen and you will hear evidence
Radio 4: fingerprint scans for kid’s school dinners

No more money – what will we do?

Worry not,
About that anyway,
For we have a new system being introduced

So if money is to be no more
What then is the score?

Deeper into the belly of the beast we go
And the beast is a machine
And the machine is a beast

There will be a future day
When you’ll use your finger to pay

Your finger bones connected to your hand bone
Your hand bones connected to your wrist bone
Your wrist bones connected to your arm bone

On and on:
All the way along to the head bone: the skull
And what resides these days inside the skull
A grey sponge full of myriad confusions
And unsatisfying desires

And when you finger-scan yourself aboard
The New Titanic, for your luxury cruise to hell
Enjoy the splendour
The comfy furniture
The personal TV’s
The waiter service
Bringing you champagne & finely cooked flesh
But don’t look for the lifeboats or life-jackets
When the boat begins to sink:
They were left on shore

The place we are moving away from;
The natural world
Togetherness
Humanity
Love:
The most precious thing we are losing

Neither a borrower nor a lender be:

Have we borrowed our modern values from demons?
Have we lent our sacred spirits to sinister con-men?

Neither a borrower nor a lender be:

What happened to giving?

Selling or taking or taking or selling?

Have we sold our souls to take our fill?
Have we borrowed our appetites for objects and flesh?
Our appetites for destruction?

Are you going to borrow the means?
To keep buying what is sold?
To keep believing what you’re told?
By men with dark hearts,
And darker objectives?

Are you going to lend your human sovereignty?
To take a seat on the boat?
To sail away past the horizon of humanity?
To sink deeper and deeper into the sickness?
Until you reach rock bottom

Don’t be a haunted skeleton
Be a human
Don’t lock away the bounty
Of love and compassion
Inside your treasures chests

Give it all away - that is the only way
Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

It Looks Evil

A recent poem. Elements taken from humanity, history, the museum, McDonald's, history and Edgar Allen Poe:

It Looks Evil

The little boy pressed his nose against the glass
To closer examine the carved wooden figure before him
“It looks evil,” he observed to his mother
“It’s primitive, not evil,” replied his mother
The little boy remained, his nose pressed against the glass
Then he asked, “What’s primitive, mum?”
But she had drifted away - to another display - out of earshot:

Later, after the examining ancient culture
The pair would sit and consume modern culture
The boy offering a chicken nugget to tomato sauce
Then lifting it to his mouth and pausing
To inspect the face of the clown on the wall opposite
“He looks evil,” said the boy to his mother
“He’s not evil, he’s happy,” replied his mother
“Why is he happy?” asked the boy
“Because he’s successful,” replied his mother:

Earlier, much earlier; two hundred years and more
A member of the Haida tribe finished a carving
He placed it on the ground before him to examine it
His eyes looked down upon the wooden missionary
Hat, blank face, three-quarter-length jacket, trousers, shoes
A representation of the deliverer;
The deliverer of Christianity, smallpox, typhoid, measles
And syphilis;

Later, the tribesman would apply lignite to the carving
A raven black substance to cover the hat, jacket, trousers and shoes
The raven, a central character within Haida mythology
The character that made the world by
Stealing, exchanging, redistributing; moving things around:

Later – much later – back to the future
A cursed and tarnished cityscape, smog filled and litter covered
The little boy now a man walks through a grey city park
An almost empty bottle swinging in his hand
Through his drunken haze he spies a raven
Feeding on a discarded quarter-pounder
He whispers questions, but receives no answer
Then repeats them so much louder;
“Have we all become whores? Victims of our lustful mores?
When will this nation, this earth, receive salvation?”
The raven turns and squawks a single word
And that word is: nevermore.

Guy Fawked

I thought that I knew what the gunpowder plot was all about. How wrong I was. It turns out that - according to Webster Tarpley & others - the plot had no chance of being realised. That the gunpowder wasn't even gun powder, it was cornpowder - a much less combustible substance. That the king et al where nowhere near the scene. That Guy had been well and truly stitched up by the Cecil's. He was surrounded by fanatics and double agents (well one agent either side of him).

Remember, remember the fifth of November...in this context it reminds me of how little I actually know, and how important it is to do proper research, rigorous research, if you actually want to understand something...or attempt a better - more thorough - understanding.

TV and £: the new religions

Some might say that they are better than Christianity or Islam, that is open to debate, but are they are both the work of satan? Is the worship of TV and money the prevailing new religion? Is to be a celebrity or a millionaire/billionaire the new sainthood? Something is very wrong with the picture and the printout. I have a fragment of an idea of how much damage/harm/evil has been done in the name of religion. It is the cause of so much bloodshed I am surprised that the earth and the sea are not crimson, that earth doesn't look like mars from space. Who knows, the way we are heading, that will possibly be earth's fate. And how did this situation come about? How did TV and money become more important than basic humanity? Why and how did we allow ourselves to be ruled/controlled/suckered by that unholy combination? It sickens me. I say, 'death to the cathode ray, on the bonfire with currency.' Both take more than they give, and what they do give, we don't need - not really.

Here's to flawed idealism and optimism. May we one day sacrifice these false gods on the alter of humanity, and banish them to the underworld for ever more.

T.U.M.

Tank Girl

I happened to see an ex-student of mine the other day. We exchanged small talk up to the point where I asked what she was thinking of doing with her life, career-wise. She informed me that she wanted to join the army...to drive a tank. And go to Iraq oR Afghanistan or wherever the fighting happened to be. I asked her if she knew why 'we' were engaged in combat in those regions. She didn't know. Sadam? WMD? Oil? They all seemed like news to her. This reminded me of an article I had heard on the wireless. One about the army's recruiting policy. About how they target schools in areas of social depravation; enlisting the cannon-fodder from the working-class or underclass. Basically, kids who haven't much of an idea why 'we' are over there. Nothing new there then? But this got me to thinking about the way they advertise the military services to kids. It all looks like so much fun, so exciting - like a wonderful adventure. This reminded me of an advert that I had seen, one that had been modified by a political subversive type. The copy read: EVER THOUGHT ABOUT A CAREER IN THE ARMY? THEN ASK A - here comes the modification - PARENT WHO HAS LOST A CHILD IN IRAQ. Brilliant. More of the same, please. This is the sort of war education that our children need.

Long live dissent.

T.U.M.