They’ve renewed lockdown edicts
for us shuffling half-wits [but I will
fly in my mind’s self-isolation cell]
No rattled keys & no one lingers in
filmed exercise yards/ Big Brother
is resplendent on my widescreen –
congratulating us – more mastery
in endless wars – Minitrue speaks
truth to all on Twitter feeds/ Take
us to Jura [to a thought distillery]
& let us sup on literature & porn –
awed by Geo. Orwell & Jade Kush
& their prodigious outputs! Spied
favourites are reduced – they slim
down to less choices [PornHub &
TikTok] to laments off inmates/ It
will be good to hear no complaint
[Quiet now – our children will sleep
in air-fed bunks & no longer weep]
& my rooms expand to exclude all
those narrow channels/ I grew up
with three choices [an abundance
of voices – not many mattered – so
we absconded from cells to fields]
When we can enter a cinema & sit
in rows – to be bugged by others –
who distract – then normal is back
but ’til then return from your one
trip [for essential avocados & fags]
& tune in to 10,000 choices of crap
MIKE BELL | 10,000 Poems 