And They Wrote the World

Climate Change, nature, Personal Reflection, politics 1 Minute 
It is no lie
that the scrunched
fists and inexpert
fingers which carved
shapes respresenting
language, wrought
the shapes from privilege 

causing materials
and education
to come at a price
beyond the common
hut dweller.  Secrets
and power, bore out,
stamped and sealed with gold
kept for selected audiences.
They took their blocks
and then their quills

and they wrote the world,
their slender wrists
ignorant of poverty
or labour 

And now
in hallowed motherboards
the same wrists
hold sway as though
we haven't evolved at all
Meanwhile the creeks clog
and the wildlife choke
and the poor starve
among flies and disease

and pandemics flow easy as water

but in their ivory
strongholds nothing has
changed.  Not even
the fear of losing it all.

Submitted to Earthweal’s Open Link Weekend #73 July 4th, 2021

Published by abigfatcanofworms

We all walk in the dark. But if we hold hands, perhaps the dark won't be as scary.

Published

20 thoughts on “And They Wrote the World”

  1. Very clever, and that line ‘pandemics flow easy as water’, wow. Also very true, even today. Important documents are written in legal jargon designed to confuse the masses and give a sense of importance to the privileged few who translate this nonsense!

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    1. Diatribe… I must google that word. To my mind it speaks of a rant. “A powerful and bitter attack…” Okay. I guess that’s right. I didn’t like the idea of ranting. 🙂. I wrote it in three bursts. And I read it to P before posting. I wasn’t confident of it.

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  7. Writing as a privilege and a selective high society. I can see the tight fists trying to keep in all the traditions and stop the evolution of language. Great poem with a powerful image of the pandemic and then the worry of losing it all. Even if there is no humanity left to enjoy the pompous works of literary geniuses. Vive la révolution littéraire!

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  8. “As if we havent evolved at all” – that is the astonishment I feel all the time – with whole towns burning down in B.C., not one word about the climate crisis, the high temperatures that started it all – trying to explain it away as man-made. Denial is alive and well among those who govern. Maybe they dont have a clue what to do. Easier to pretend it isnt happening. So frustrating. A powerful write.

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  9. Smart write. Language itself was a product of nature, but the symbolic shift with written language meant world internalized and possessed. And so the gap formed. The technology raced forward but the human animal failed to evolve. Well done — Brendan

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  10. just literate enough to buy stuff online, operate machinery without hacking ourselves to bits, and observe Stop signals. but that’s about all the ivory-wristed want from their loyal minions ~

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