I Wouldn't Have Called Anyhow.

Al Cheves' Installation at the San Francisco Art Commission Gallery

I Wouldn't Have Called Anyhow

Although I Wouldn't Have Called Anyhow

(It brought me a kind of sadness to hear

Your number is blocked, your Channel's not Clear),

No wrinkle of concern mars my botoxed brow.

An upgrade, a new phone, or new IOS

(And bigger screen, as you fell for the myth

Of more throughput, from a bigger bandwidth?)

Answering the sales rep with Oh my, oh yes.

Life's edges all smoothed, it's contours sanded

It's entryways with luscious colors appointed

The way's made easy if you're among the anointed,

Your water's all bottled and your clothing is branded.

Taking Internet selfies, making Facebook friends

While ads promise glamor and a life full of fun.

All without risk, simply pay out this sum

'Cause it's only the fools that meet bad ends.

Climb in! jump on! Buy into zoomzoom,

Get out of your doldrums and join the race

Hold hands with the avatars of frantic pace

Just ignore those naggings of Doctor Doom.

“It's all good”, when life's rides are chauffeured

And all your conversations streak through the air

in electro-magnetic waves that frazzle your hair

So you forget your job's been down-sized and gophered.

Chutes and Ladders, in cahoots with razors;

Sliding, gliding one giddily rides,

Laughing and gasping 'til at the end rasping

You see ragged teeth and the Lawman's tasers.

Like a trip on Muni or a bike ride in traffic,

An internet conversation that bursts into Flame.

The everyday anyday that turns into doomsday,

at the blink of an eye or the click of your Bic.

Like auto exhaust or second-hand smoke

It's only so long before life's consequences

Seep over or under our shoddily-built fences

And start to impact the simplest of folk.

Economic Energetic and Environmental

Our leaders corral into separate spaces,

But everything entwines and interlaces

Stop treating our Home as though it's a rental.

As one more ice shelf calves off from Greenland

And a Cyclone or two blow over Hawaii,

All we can do is wonder more, How we

Changed from a nice one into a meanland.

Our throw-away lives leaving trash disregarded

And islands of plastic suddenly appear

Seen swirling from space in the Northwest Gyre,

As form follows function, and then is discarded.

But sentinels stand, prophetic in silence

Like on that remote island called Easter,

Rapa nui from unplumbed depths doth bestir

Nightmares of humanity gone mad with violence.

But as matters keep going from worse onto worser,

We watch “Breaking Bad” episodes that melt human bones

And hyper-kill videos like “Game of Thrones”

Where murder is fun: execution by cursor.

Color and darkness in juxtaposition,

Standing apart and refusing to mingle,

They shoot up ones spine an ominous tingle

As existence turns into mere huckster's perdition.

The bright colors now seem just blinding distraction

Dazzling our over-strained eyes with their glare,

'til we take all that's offered with nary a care.

Too enervated now to take any action.

Ripped, sawed, and rickshawed, we're trapped in this matrix,

Sanded, dis-banded and permanent pressed,

Jet-lagged and sand-bagged and constantly stressed,

With addictions and fictions and sexual gay tricks

Lurking and smirking 'cause “Life's just a beach”.