We live in a box.
We work in a box.
We stare at a glowing box
all day.
We stare at a glowing box
all night.
Living vicariously,
is not living,
but dying slowly
by killing time.
We choose it.
We chose it.
And so it goes
until they finally
put us in a box.
Only then
would we know,
if we could know,
the most horrible truth:
that it's boxes
all the way down.
Forever and ever.
Amen.
We think we're free
but we're not.
We're free
to choose
the choices
someone else made
for us.
Coke or Pepsi.
Big Mac or Whopper.
We choose,
but from a menu.
We want choices,
but not too many.
We choose
and call it freedom,
an expression of our uniqueness,
but then blur into the crowd
and look like everyone else,
wearing the same shit,
eating the same food,
just like everyone else.
Each so gray and opaque,
yet looking for a rainbow,
just like everyone else.
Funny how so much choice
bends us back to bland,
like department store mannequins,
instead of sentient beings.
All that effort to stand out
only to blend in.
Not a herd but a hive.
It's comforting, actually,
when you know
what you are not
and accept it with a smile.
Now that we have that
out of the way,
choose again.
We are happy because
we're supposed to be happy.
Everyone is happy
and we take happy pills
and read happy books
and listen to happy songs
telling us how to be happy.
So happy!
I'm happy!
Now repeat
until you believe it.
Happy is another choice
that's not a choice,
but something
expected,
necessary,
mandated.
It's a lie
and we need
everyone in on it.
After all,
we prefer
the opiate
of Disneyland
or TV land,
not the naked truth
of the nursing home,
or the cemetery,
for such truths
do not set one free,
but wither the self
with the truth
of what will,
inevitably,
for all, be.
The Cult of Sunshine
knows this
deep down,
as the sunny smile
slips into a
frown,
that the masquerade
is just that.
But only alone,
in the dark,
at 3 a.m.,
is such honesty
allowed.
Finally!
A little authenticity,
the only authenticity
we mannequins get,
alone in our boxes,
all the way down.
Forever and ever.
Amen.
-----
Brasilia, Brazil
October 2017