The supermarket swarms with human ants,

All hunter-gather: regimental queues.

They beetle home in cars to cells around

The urban termite-nest we call a town.

Some load their washers: mine’s on programme three!

Or couch potato: the telly’s on now:

A soap, a quiz, the news, Jeremy Kyle.

While others go online to Facebook or

On Twitter. Yet more just get their mobiles

Out: texting friends: the information age!

We play out time by pushing icons right

Across our screens. The bankers say we’re skint

So builders cannot build, or farmers sew

Their seed. The real producers hamstrung by

Those bureaucrats backed by squabbling politicians.

So we soldier on, just seeking out a

Better way.

Paul Butters or Skryboss

(C) Yorkshire, Friday 25th December 2009 at 14.15.