Temples of Avarice

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Image by Tomasz Zaczeniuk

 
Temples of Avarice

~

they rose gargantuan
these icons
of the clever human

they once vibrated
with the rush and chaos
of synapse and sinew

they hummmed
with networked urgency

a torrent of data
outdistancing comprehension

‘we can’
beyond the reach
of ‘should we’

a time too blind
to see its faulted fate
a time to turn back
sadly came too late

bedecked in stainless
stone
and arrogance

a halogen blaze
of neon fire
burnt logic

they surged
with the impulse of power
and greed

in varying shape
and differing size
they flanked for miles
in gridded corridors

that crissed and crossed
blinked and beeped
buzzed and hissed
they stank!

temples of avarice
now but this lone
crumbling monolith

this final tribute
to human folly

~ ~ ~
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55 Word Version

~

they rose gargantuan
these icons
of the clever human
shrines of synapse and sinew

humming
with networked urgency
torrents of data
outdistancing comprehension

‘we can’
beyond the reach
of ‘should we’

bloated
with a need for power
diseased with greed

temples of avarice
now but this lone
crumbling monolith

this final tribute
to human folly

~ ~ ~

rob kistner © 2019

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36 thoughts on “Temples of Avarice”

  1. Oh the folly of all this data… the greed of gathering is a human flaw, and in the end there is an empty shell… just like always.

    1. Like David Byrne of the Talking Heads said, “Same as it ever was”. If you are curious what my deeper thoughts are regarding technology, read my comment to Dwight which I posted here.

    1. Wow, you are right Jane. I unconsciously must have been channeling Shelley today, although I had never read that piece by him, until your comment here pointed me toward it. I got chills when I read it.

    1. And if we don’t get a handle on our runawsy technology Beverly, and the arrogancd of superiority it stirs within us, this “bleak picture” may be frighteningly close to being accurate.

  2. Apocalypse Soon, brother–so rife with truth and irony. A prophetic poetic written both biblically and existentially.
    I do so enjoy the depth and scope of your word-smithing; a grand poet ye be, sir.

    1. Thank you Glenn, appreciate the kind words dude. I hope my vision here is wrong. For the sake of my 5-year-old grandson, I so hope I am wrong. But I have such a strong feeling that humankind has umleashed a beast of technology that may someday consume us. But what the fuck do I know, I’m old and infirm. 😉

    1. Hi Grace. I hope this is not the direction our human species continues to go, but we need to examine this abuse of technology that we have perpetrated. The tech is essentialy neutral in itself, but how we are using it, and worshipping it, I believe is dangerously skewed.

  3. ‘we can’
    beyond the reach
    of ‘should we’
    and the ending. a truly chilling course we are on. i pray something less than apocalyptic interrupts the trajectory.

    1. It may be thst I am just too old Dwight, but I think humankind may have unknowingly released a dangerous genie, that we can’t put back in the bottle. I see the stress, and strife, and division in the world, and I believe it is because we have overwhelmed our human capacity. I think some of the conveniences that early technology afforded were fine, but they were not used responsibly, to improve the human condition, as they should have been. The promise of a better world, the dream of the 50’s and 60’s of an elevated reality. Instead, we simply began worshipping the tech, and using it to distract ourselves from the problems of the world, rather than trying to find solutions. I know that I will never see the future that I fear is coming, and I so hope I am wrong. For the sake of my precious grandson, I hope I am so wrong. However, the signs I see, the negative momentum, the growing arrogance of our species – I just don’t know?

  4. We can only gather so much, Rob, and then we have to give back again, and even the mighty eventually fall. I like the hum of networked urgency, the background noise to our current existence, and the lines:
    ‘a time too blind
    to see its faulted fate
    a time to turn back
    sadly came too late’.

    1. The human species I feel has reached a point of imbalance with regard to our deification and abuse of technology Kim. The chaos in the world is partly a stress reaction to the speed at which the world is moving. We have not evolved to the degree we can handle it – and that is mortally dangerous, in my humble opinion.

  5. ‘we can’
    beyond the reach
    of ‘should we’… story of our times… driven by everything that shouldn’t. Lovely write!

  6. Yes, yes, we have divided against one another through our technology instead of achieving that elevation. I too really worry what is coming sooner than we think, and about how my children will navigate it. Appreciate your verse and your commentary, Rob.

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