poem of the day 03.13.14

technological advancements

my mother calls

she tells me that she got an iphone

your father wants me

to take a class on how to use it, she says

we’ve reached the pinnacle of the outrageous

here in the land of the free

the home of the brave

there is no cure for cancer

there is no cure for AIDS

and millions are starving on the street

to a rich government melody

of who gives a fuck?

but there are classes on using the telephone now

it’s so neat, my mom says to me

and i’ll bet it is

otherwise everyone wouldn’t have their heads

buried in the things

instead of watching where they’re walking on the street

when you call me your picture comes up

with its own theme music

this makes sense, i think

to be frozen into a pose on a phone

like a stock character in a bad sitcom

the drunken luddite son

eschewing all technological advances

the grump the crank

smiling it all away

in a world that has become

such a fucking joke.