Tuesday, 23 June 2015

All That Glitters...

This piece is my favourite to date. With a little inspiration from Thomas Hardy and Richard Brautigan (you know how much I love him!), I have created my own sci-fi poem. 

The key theme: REFLECTION. 

We sometimes forget how simple we are, and at the same time; how complex. We don't always take responsibility for our own actions and I have attempted to utilise poetry to portray this.



All that glitters.
All that glitters is not gold,
The cliché of straw that broke Iron Man’s back;
The meaning of life as we know it.
No amount of machinery can change this concept,
No lump of cold, metal mass that
Despite its hard angles and razor-sharp edges,
Always runs smoothly;
An electrical flow that resembles a heady liquor,
Poured over neat cubed ice,
Directly into the mains,
Blowing up our generation.

Tobor came to life,
A tale not dissimilar to Shelley’s.
Slow, rigid raise of the arm,
Chunky metal clanking noises surround us;
Shackles dragging across the lab floor,
The representation of our world as we know it;
Desire for achievement,
Lust for adventure,
Passion for creation;
Falls to the ground,
Lays in a crumpled heap of atomic energy
Held together with chunky bolts.
Gloopy metallic glue
Trickles from its steel limbs.

It’s alive!
We are dead
(or at least, I hope we are!)
And our blood dribbles into pools
On this liquid-resistant ground.
Tobor and other robotic monsters of the world
Unite to break the peace that man always dreamed of achieving,
Yet somehow never accomplished.
If the serenity of the human race were never there,
Should we question its existence?

A decomposing generation,
Consumed by worms,
But its ok (I think);
I have never known a robot
With a sense of smell.
The heartless beasts of productivity
Will step over us in our earthy burial;
The mud will not cling to their stainless steel soles,
But will always cling to ours.

Once we’re squished into gammy piles of human jam,
Trodden into the once-fertile ground,
We’ll make room for nostalgia,
For our memories;
The credentials of the humankind.
I wonder if Earth’s temperature will plummet,
And they’ll exist in an arctic land,
For they shall not appreciate a cool ice-tea
In the summer heat of their back gardens.
Instead (one can only imagine)
That they will live amongst man-made materials,
Ones built to avoid destruction.
The irony is palpable to us
(Even though we’ll be dead!)
Yet is so indistinguishable to them,
Who’s emotions run no deeper than
A shallow puddle of oil that we created
To maintain their controlled existence
And fluidity of their movement.

The bottom line of it all;
Man created destruction.
The imbalance of the beautiful,
Unforgivably witty oxymoron
Can only define us now we have ceased.
We can only wonder whether
Robots were programmed to engrave our headstones
And allow that line to mock the death of our Race-
(That’s assuming they would ever even give us that respect!).
Man could claim that they owe us everything,
Yet failed to remind them of this
When he fixed their wiring to ‘control-self’.

Is it embarrassing
That we’ve so gladly handed our lives
Over to a hand colder than ice?
Should we be ashamed
That the £60,000 car we designed
Ends the lives of thousands of people every year?
Consideration for mankind,
Lost in an Apple Mac’s programming-
Our souls already sold to social media.
Of course,
Robots have not yet taken over the world as we know it,
Physically.
Expecting to witness demonic monsters
Patrolling the streets late at night;
The stereotype drilled into us
(drilled- the irony!)
Yet this has not yet been achieved.
Our eyes are not able to observe such horrors,
The irony is so blatant!
Absorbed in ourselves too much to consider
Our own reflections;
Beneath our soft skin and bio-degradable shells
Lie the monsters that we so fear.
Man is robot.
We are ultimately
The beasts that will terminate us.


I Feel Sick.



 This is an unedited piece, so excuse the flaws in grammar. 

Here's a piece consisting of my jumbled emotions, stuck together with hormonal glue. I wrote this purely because I wished to express the way I feel about my partner...sometimes it doesnt hurt to have an emotional vent.

When people have described Love in the past, they’ve explored the delicious notions of ‘butterflies’ and ‘that giddy feeling in your tummy’. I feel sick. When I think of Love, my top lip curls in such a way that ironically, the shape of it resembles a ‘heart’. What’s worse is being in love. I ache, personally. Love is a subjective notion, as is beauty- it’s “in the eyes of the beholder”, apparently. I’ve done that generic, low-budget rom-com dreaded thing and fallen in love. I understand the notion of the ‘butterflies’, or as I sweetly like to call it ‘tummy flips’. ‘Butterflies’ sounds so much more wondrous and charming- magical, if you like- but that’s not my style. If you’re going to be honest about Love, you should be brutal and take no prisoners- not even the person you’ve fallen for, knowing they’re going to read this. Titles are nothing, too, might I add. Relationships smattered all over social media sites, public displays of affection- always seeming to go that little bit further and irritating people that little bit more. I feel sick. Why? Because I have ultimately become that person. The person who always claimed they were too ‘classy’ to kiss in public, too shy to show affection to their chosen person; that person who holds the power to change me in such a way that I no longer possess the independence and maturity I once held proudly. I feel sick. I want to explain how I feel when I see the person I love; at first, I feel my chest swell a little- sickening, I know. Secondly, my facial muscles disobey my mind’s commands and my mouth stretches across my face in a ridiculous manner- showing nearly all of my teeth. Thirdly, that chest swelling feeling increases more and more. “She’s only been to work for a few hours!” “You only saw her yesterday” “fucking hell, you’ve only been apart a week!” I get it often. It’s a mockery of me, I know. What’s worse is that I don’t even care. I feel sick. Again, fourthly, a wave of sudden nausea spreads across my body and there is a scorching sensation in my gut- sexy, isn’t it? I reckon that’s the ‘butterflies’. Mischievous little bastards, aren’t they!? No, I hate to disappoint you, but my hands definitely don’t go clammy, nor does my breathing rate speed up like I haven’t done any cardio training in a year…once that nausea evacuates my body, I just feel warm. It’s a lovely feeling, quite toasty. The only way I can describe it is like so; I’ve just eaten a hot bowl of homemade stew- probably a little too quick- and its slumped inside my belly. It’s warm, it’s quite cosy. I’m not a cynic, before you ask, and I’m most certainly not a pessimist- I embrace all aspects of life. I just believe in being blunt. I was once referred to as “the pencil that lost its sharpener” what a ridiculous statement. I never realised that honesty caused a person to feel like a broken writing tool that is essentially useless. Back to the point, Love. It’s a boring concept really; overworked by people who either don’t understand it or in some cases, spell it- “I luv u”. You must be joking, right? It’s not the word that is of importance here, it’s the utilisation of it. I, personally, cannot say it enough when I truly mean it. Almost 22 years of constantly reminding my mother that I love her, ensuring my friends know that I love them, and more to the point; telling the person I’ve fallen for every single day, without fail, and without anything less than whole-hearted emotion. I say “heart” when really, I mean my stomach. After all, they call it a “gut instinct”, don’t they? Regardless of how long you have known a person, been with that person, or how many or little photos on Facebook you share with that person; if you mean it, it is real. What I believe to be most important is that stomach-ache…that feeling you get when you eat hot stew, and wow, when that feeling spreads- your throat! Well, every time I think of that person, how much she means to me, how excited I am to plan a future with her; my throat feels as though I’ve just drank a 500ml bottle of coke and gulped it down in just 2 mouthfuls- it gets stuck in your gullet and for just a second you feel as though you may choke. As you can see, in my eyes, Love is not about creating a beautiful image, comparing people to pretty flowers (I’ve never been into horticulture, myself) and talking about stars and hearts and all the other generic rubbish you see printed on cards from Clintons. Love- in my eyes, and probably my eyes only- is about having a feeling in your gut like no other. A nauseous burn that engulfs your body. That is when I know I’m in love. Whether you’re 2, 22 or 102- if you feel it, it is real. “I think, therefore I am”. Thank you, Descartes. The person I have fallen for consumes my mind, affects every single choice I make- the big and the small- and is ultimately the centre point of my world. A hot ball of molten lava, if you want to be geographical or if you’re just a sarcastic realist, like myself. I’m in love and I feel sick, and it’s the greatest feeling I’ve ever had.

Dear Mr Cameron...

Now, I'm not madly into politics (shoot me!), but as a student, of course, I have a view on the new Tory government, and I am fully aware of how their reign will impact my lifestyle.

Here's a little something I wrote, as suggested by a friend...


Dear Mr Cameron,

I understand that you’re busy fighting a public vendetta (sorry, *your public, Mr. Prime Minister) and all, so I’ll keep this short. I’m a student and I sweat. I know, that sounds like the opening line of “sweaters anonymous”, should that exist, but yes, I sweat.

I sweat because I have to find over one hundred and fifty quotes and references this summer for my dissertation, plan the most important document I will ever have to write and soak with tears, and if I wasn’t clammy enough, I’m currently working thirty five hours a week at minimum wage to pay for my extortionate student rent. Oh, I forgot to mention, my student finance has been cut. I truly hope that the extra shifts I will have to take after September don’t affect the degree that I have been working towards for the past two years. I mean, you really mustn’t be that desperate for over-qualified English language teachers, given that every single person in the UK is English-speaking-British-born and bred, aren’t they?…but don’t worry, I shan’t bore you with any more details, you must be so sick of us sweaty people by now.

I don’t know whether you’re into tennis, or squash (-maybe even badminton?), but I can picture you now; sweat droplets soaking your ironed-whites and absorbing quickly into your headband as you take your last serve of your hour against Boris. Gosh, that’s a tiring lunch-break!
On another note, I come home from a twelve hour shift stinking to high heavens of roasted meats, sporting a juicy gravy residue under my finger nails and feeling as though my Achilles heels are going to snap beneath me. It’s worth it for that £78 quid though; minus the tax, of course. It’s also a good job I love showering, and take my personal hygiene very seriously, even if I can only afford Aldi’s finest brand of shower gel- it’s mighty hard to find affordable hygiene products when you have an intolerance to soap (and bloody hell; prescriptions are dear!). 

What I’m trying to get at, Mr Prime Minister, Sir, is a question. I have only one question for you, and it’s a straight-forward ‘yes or no’ answer that I require.

Would you so kindly lend me some deodorant?

Yours Sincerely,
BA Hons Syra Johal.



P.S- I’m sorry about the torn corner of this page. Some of the wet stuff dribbled from my brow-it has been quivering uncontrollably since early May.