Television

We sit gaping at flashing screens
Yelling and screaming and hurling packages
Of sound and picture carefully crafted to paste us onto them. We
Often throw ourselves on it and yearn
For that ungettable nothing by switching
Channels rapidly like flipping through an
Uninteresting interesting book in the library
About to close. Torn between this yearning and
The guilt of having wasted hours, we overwork
Our fingers on the worn-out buttons of the remote,
The cheap Chinese batteries unable to comprehend
Our inability to discern. What do we want? The TV
Refuses to give us that. We forget that it only gives us
What they want to give us. Where is our choice? We sit in
Emptiness looking for the eluding fulfillment. God
Bless the TV! I think it’s not for me.

Holidays- incarnation of nemesis

The Time that you carelessly trampled on for so long
Gets back to you now and you will have to plan and
Replan and plan again to merely decide what you’re going to do.
Remember all the victims of your boring talks and you’ll
Get to know now how they all had felt.
Think of the miserable, with nothing to do and if
You want to kill them, hurl on them a holiday or two.
Their spirit will die a torturous death
And they’ll writhe and moan and groan and fret.
They’ll spend time on thinking how and when and
What and where and at the end of the holidays
They’ll carry the albatross of their yet-to-be-dones
And whiled-away-times and not-so-sweet-nothingnesses
And their hearts will sink to think that it’s all over.
I tell you this here and now, if you want time to reflect
And finish the unfinished work you have,
Just an hour or two on a busy day will do,
Please don’t curse me with a holiday too.