I may talk of philosophy
I might say there’s some relevance
in the movements of stars
spinning round in this canopy above – but
I don’t have an answer, really I don’t.
I’m getting older but not wiser
The information age confuses me
subsumes me in a sea of mediocrity
where what is real and fake
feather into an ambiguous morass
where what humanity remains slowly drowns. Yes
that’s the thing
I can still remember what it was like
to be a human being
to have hope and belief but all that
is gone
replaced by some vague notion
that this can’t be the real world
merely a joke and a sick one too
And what lies beyond
is an ever increasing irrelevance
though the sense of that dawning oblivion
does not cause panic or fear anymore –
merely the weary acceptance of release
and what peace might be

copyright Francis Barker 2019