Seeing the World
Poem - by Bruce Boston
We learn from an early age,
to see the world on our vids.
This is the world that counts.
and that we can count upon,
a world of safe adventures
and endless entertainment:
chases, captures, love affairs,
quiz shows and laugh tracks,
and the most instant news
tamped down and tempered
to make the sharp edges of
reality, the lies and deaths,
softer and more palatable.
Yet when I break from the
endless video tales and
see the real world that
prevails around us:
the life-stained walls,
the cobwebs gathering
in fearful symmetries
no matter how often
we sweep them down,
I wonder and pray that
somehow there must
be another real world
that we can all inhabit
beyond the drab reality
that fills our everyday.
Then I hear the cries
and the shots rising
from the street below.
I close the metal shutters,
return to my favorite chair,
and activate the screen to
bask in the virtual radiance
that shines upon our lives.