BRAINS
I have read that your brain is shrinking.
The socials are whittling you away as you watch TikTok and Instagram,
The mind candy canker of all the irresistible memes.
Lost lives are lived to influence you with images of desire or destruction,
Presenting perfection, or vice, or porn, or hippies doing up houses,
And dogs doing intelligent things, all for likes and a possible income.
Freed from the labour that connects your synapses
And reboots your will to live,
Your cerebellum will shrivel your muscle mass
And your amygdala in overdrive will increase your anxiety. Your phone
Cuts out birdsong and speech and the noise of the world turning
That feeds your understanding of others in real time.
Your attention to detail as you funnel your mind
Into your hand-held screen will rob you of twenty-five years
And your freedom of thought. A plug in the wall
Recharges the various dictatorships under which you now exist
That narrow the channels in your head,
Squeeze the juice out of your skull
And leave you less than you could have been – should have been.
Give me your wasted years – I know how to use them.
