We’ve all been out there,
Running the rat race,
Not realising,
We all got a slap in the face.
We’re all in there,
Chasing the girl,
And all that's happening is,
We’re being taken for a twirl.
Because all around this world,
This wide, wide world,
There’s a boy,
There’s a girl.
She’s singing a sweet song,
He’s drooling,
She’s stringing him along,
Running the rat race,
Not realising,
We all got a slap in the face.
We’re all in there,
Chasing the girl,
And all that's happening is,
We’re being taken for a twirl.
Because all around this world,
This wide, wide world,
There’s a boy,
There’s a girl.
She’s singing a sweet song,
He’s drooling,
She’s stringing him along,
He's fooling.
He buys her a drink,
And is starting to think
He’s in with a grin,
He’s in to win!
Is she too thin?
No, he can’t wait to begin,
Begin what? Tonight,
There’ll be no begin-ning,
Both are trying to fill,
The gaping hole inside,
Inside comes outside,
Both know they’re being lied, to.
He buys her a drink,
And is starting to think
He’s in with a grin,
He’s in to win!
Is she too thin?
No, he can’t wait to begin,
Begin what? Tonight,
There’ll be no begin-ning,
Both are trying to fill,
The gaping hole inside,
Inside comes outside,
Both know they’re being lied, to.
But where they’re looking,
They’re not going to find,
The thing to set at rest,
Their mind.
Where was love lost,
Along the way?
A long way, back?
To far to track?
Because in a culture,
That’s all about sex,
What comes nex-t?
Thousands of people all vexed?
Where did we lose,
Those religious values,
That see sex and love,
To be cherished?
But they perished,
Not that I wish to return,
Or turn, back time,
It’s impossible and not required.
Rather to realise there’s a hole,
That can only be filled by love,
And friends and community,
Not in simple sexual unity.
They’re not going to find,
The thing to set at rest,
Their mind.
Where was love lost,
Along the way?
A long way, back?
To far to track?
Because in a culture,
That’s all about sex,
What comes nex-t?
Thousands of people all vexed?
Where did we lose,
Those religious values,
That see sex and love,
To be cherished?
But they perished,
Not that I wish to return,
Or turn, back time,
It’s impossible and not required.
Rather to realise there’s a hole,
That can only be filled by love,
And friends and community,
Not in simple sexual unity.
I started thinking through this piece on the way home from a night out partying in NZ in early 2012, observing and listening to the other passengers on the bus.
I finished it off as a stream-of-consciousness spoken-word piece for the dVersePoets prompt on the fractured nature of the modern world, in which Western culture is, I think, losing sight of what is important while we all chase personal pleasure.
What do you, about both the poem (which needs to be read out loud in spoken word style) and the subject it tackles?
When it becomes just about sex then sexual unity gains immunity, from love. It stops being an affair of the heart, and that apart it can only lead to falling apart, for a start. It becomes an art, the art of seduction, in all a reduction of a human relationship, the Intro-duction of self-satisfying, selfish self-gratification which leads to the striation of society.
When it becomes just about sex then sexual unity gains immunity, from love. It stops being an affair of the heart, and that apart it can only lead to falling apart, for a start. It becomes an art, the art of seduction, in all a reduction of a human relationship, the Intro-duction of self-satisfying, selfish self-gratification which leads to the striation of society.
