People make all the difference

Cherry

By Parson Thru

Wed, 04 Jul 2018
  • 1302 reads
4 comments
 

It changes day-to-day
by the hour
minutes, even

People make all the difference

The weather helps

And the mentality
- the openness
- the friendliness
- forgive and forget

Like this morning
- the session I stayed awake over
- the student whose class I forgot
- the one who was so angry

This morning, so friendly
so generous

The office of the multinational

Outside, soulless concrete and glass
Downstairs, sterile steel and barriers
Inside the glass door, warmth, humanity

Paradox

Last night in the street, the borrachos
- one man’s social exuberance
- another’s sleepless night

The cans stuffed into the bin
The squashed empties across the path

If I’d had a gun…

A bus driver walked by
- blue shirt
- navy trousers

Cities have legions

We view them, variously
as surly, friendly, a cabal, a necessity

Imagine no bus drivers
- anywhere
- in all the cities

What kind of world is it
where everything’s done by machines?

Who does it serve?

Life is changing day-to-day
by the hour
minutes, even

People make all the difference

Certificate U
Poem
Parson Thruses Dairy
Travel
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by iwylie on

A fantastic reflection on humanity. Thank you for the thoughts! :) 

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thank you cialre. Lovely of you.

Thanks for the cherries eds.

Seen the BBC driverless bus story? (Complete coincidence) Somehow Country Joe McDonald comes to mind.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Di_Hard on

 They think it will be cheaper/save tax payer money  to have machines do jobs, but if you take away the tax payers' jobs there is even less money. And places become more hostile so people get intimidated leading to depression or aggression. More  has to be spent on police or medication from dwindling resources. We are progressing in the wrong direction

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Yep. Societies are split down the middle already and compromise seems a thing of the past. Enmities seem entrenched. Someone has achieved what they set out to already. The great unwashed are in deadly competition for paid work. Wages are being driven down, the state is subsidising small and huge companies through welfare. When the next surge in technology hits (as it will because wealth is pouring its fortune into the research) what is going wrong now will seem like a gentle warm up. The end state doesn't make any sense with no one to consume, but the gold rush isn't in the destination, it's in the journey.

Parson Thru