Instead of the News
Aug 11 2026
My life gets smaller.
As I age,
and complacency closes in
like a belt cinching tighter
a narrowed eye.
As I begin to fully understand
my insignificance
against the vastness of the universe
and the magnitude of time.
As the world seems more and more consumed
by endless wars
needless cruelty
and a ravaged earth.
Which may be why
I find myself retreating into daily life
domesticity
my own company.
Thinking back
instead of planning and dreaming,
reading memoir and biography
instead of the news.
Curiously, the world goes on.
Turns out I didn’t need to stay informed
cultivate opinions
or feel so upset, incensed, repelled.
Because it was all in my head.
Because being so serious
didn’t move a mind
or change a thing,
left no impression
and will leave no legacy.
Because generations succeed
only to forget
as people drop right and left
however they lived,
idols topple
temples crumble
and tectonic plates shift.
Yes, I cared, even tried
at least a little
if that’s any defence.
But either way
the sun rose and set,
leaves budded, then fell,
and year followed year
indifferent to me.
The earth went on spinning
the galaxy circled
and the universe churned
as it’s always done;
cataclysms
of creative destruction
too vast for me to see
too big to comprehend.
A self-indulgent meditation on the futility I suspect many of us feel.
But it's not totally negative. I think it expressed a becoming humility. And ends with a sense of wonder, even awe.
No comments:
Post a Comment