Birthdays

I have a light show at my feet
[by an appliance’s timings] &
a need to surrender life’s low

codes of fixed installations – I
sleep without drugs or love &
wake to an alarm set by math

& movement tracking – Kiss it
goodbye – Retreat from eating
everything in our sight – but I

won’t try [see our otiose race
of burnt-out fools] – instead a
resignation letter is writ – but

our kids will never forgive us –
& none of this will fix it – We’ll
say our lies – we tried too late

to turn from that materialism
& subsume to an archaic way
of less over time – a reduction

is beyond all comprehension
in our days of online empires
& easy clicks – Kids’ll cradle a

burgeoning distaste when sat
at a disquiet birthday dinner –
as we mind how we f*cked up