Clock Alarms

 
Clock Alarms
 
We aren't built to wake to clock alarms
or meant to rush to catch the train to work.
We're born to bear our shares of woes and yet
to also savor peace – and even bliss.

The more we work, the faster that we do it,
the more the profit for the "owner" class.
For workers, though, there comes a point, at which
the job becomes a hell – and yet we work.

We're caught, because we need to pay the rent,
to eat, to feed and care for those we love...
But money can't be all there is to work.
The pace can murder minds and shatter lives.

"Efficiency" has ruled the mills, in which
we do our joyless toil for sustenance.
But plants and children need their time to grow
and artisans their peace to do their work.

What's fast is often blurred as well.  And there
are things that can't be hurried, lest they lose
their quality and even lose their sense.
So eating, loving, learning – each takes time.

Impatience is the illness of our times.
It stems from all that we are pressed to do.
And so it is that we produce, consume
in a mindless haste that spreads afflictions vile.

The curse has entered in our souls. Unless
we see this and allow it to dissolve,
it will destroy whatever still remains
of peace and even life – within, without.
 
So let us slow:  to sense, perceive and think;
to feel and reason – so our minds and hearts
converse, as they were always meant to do;
to pay, to others, heed – and be ourselves…

But those who try to do this suffer now
in many ways – and yet they persevere.
What choice have they, who're turned towards the truth
and still have hearts, where these are hard to find?
 
This can't succeed, until we've gained a mass
of those, who've slowed from racing – asking why
and wherefore of their “bosses”.  Only then
will sanity return, where madness reigns.
 
2015 March 28th, Sat. & 30th, Mon.
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York