They made us

 

They made us walk.

They made us think. 

They made us take part in their games. 

They made us dream.

They made us worry.

They made us care a whole lot. 

 

They made us learn.

They made us need to know more.

They made us responsible.

They made us graft for a living.

They made us mature.

They made us compete.

 

They made us despondent.

They made us choose an opinion.

They made us feel the need to be happy. 

They made us need to be consistent.

They made us want to give in.

They made us brandish that opinion on cue.

 

They made us TV and they made us the Radio. 

They made us live so as to stay strong. 

They made us gadgets which we fixated on.

They made us those flavoursome concoctions of bullshit coffee. 

They made us Goggles4u and Monday.com.

 

They made us our colour.

They made our lives matter. 

They made us wrong, oh so guilty and wrong. 

They made the pavements we walk on. 

They made us our wide open spaces.

They made us towns, they made us our cities. 

They made us our dogs and they made us our hamsters. 

They made us the Stones and the Beatles. 

They made us our Podcasts.

They made us take food as long as we burned it. 

They made us our sugar, they made us our carbs.

 

They made us our planes. 

They made us our airports. 

They made our need to escape.

They made us our festivals. 

They made us recreational drug users. 

They made us discreet hiding places between garden fences. 

They made us days where the sun runs for cover between cumulonimbus.

 

They made us so angry. 

They made us then share.

They made us take medication.

They made us hold on to the anger.

They made us let it out in digestible ways.

They made us drink Ayahuasca.

They made us talk over our thoughts and our feelings.

They made us the palaver about mental health.

 

They made us practise fair dealings. 

They made us treat them with respect. 

They made us look back, they made us look forward. 

They made us insomniacs without anyone knowing.

They made us speak ill of our friends.

 

They made us moan.

They made us complainers.

They made us guilty and shameful.

They made us hope and no-hopers.

They made us think we were better than others. 

They made us think we were worse. 

They made us think we had talent. 

They made us hanker for fame. 

They made us deny we’re all seeking attention.

 

They made us bear children.

They made us gay, straight, asexual and trans. 

They made us select our preferred pronouns. 

They made us Crypto speculators.

They made us think we were choosing our food. 

They made us be in the moment.  

They made us donate on JustGiving. 

They made us box-tickers for GiftAid. 

 

They made us try to predict the course of the virus. 

They made us keep counsel. 

They made us oblivious. 

They made us campaign.

They made us deniers.

They made us fit in, they made us compliant. 

They made the ice-caps depleted.

They made us breathe in only clean air. 

They made us go nuclear.

They made us those bicycles.

They made the hover-board scooters.

They made our loyalty cards full.

They made the week last five days.

The made our bodies achy and heavy.

They made us always lust after sleep.

 

They made us cholesterol.

They made us our cancer. 

They made us fear death.

They made us books, they made us newspapers. 

They made us ardent non-smokers.

They made us almond milk drinkers.

They made us unimpeachable adverts.

 

They made us pay for our plastic. 

They made us amass thousands of bags.

They made us deliver for Uber. 

They made the buses quite fancy. 

They made us responsible drinkers.

 

They made us get married. 

They made us co-habit.

They made us stay single.

They made us lobby for change.

They made us flinch. 

They made us look when there was nothing to see. 

They made us cry, they made us burst into tears.

They made us attracted and attractive.

They made us desire when the girl didn’t care. 

They made us love and what for?