Hard Times

Passed through Seattle
and heard some prattle
'bout how these machines
will make life good for all.

Nearing the city,
on radio a ditty:
Come to be sated,
come to the mall.

Advanced to the center
and gladly did enter
with brothers and sisters,
the human alloy.

Logos profusion
proclaimed the delusion
hawked by vendors
who can't purvey joy.

No bull nor bear
erased the care
that creased the brows
by hope unlit.

Computers all vying
to distance the dying
from worlds that crumble
in stock market's pit.

Stuck on the freeway
with plenty of leeway
for milk of kindness
to flow through each lane.

A pin-stripe so bold,
with cell phone on hold,
announced by the horn
his threshold of pain.

Now, jet planes grounded,
each one surrounded
by trav'lers not knowing
the goal nor the way.

Faces imploring,
though hardly adoring
the face on the screen
in a room of delay.

Bring us, Unseen One,
to your heart, to be one,
one with each other,
forever, this day.

Jim Stoffels
22 March 2001

 

© Copyright 2001 by Jim Stoffels