For the summer I’m going back to the series of pieces mythologizing my growing up in Cape Breton. Check the Village Stories page http://wp.me/P1RtxU-1fT for links previous pieces in this series.
Brave New World
the village elders
summoned all the villagers to come to
a meeting a the city hall
it was a compulsory meeting
no excuse would be accepted
the meeting chamber in city hall
wasn’t large enough to hold us all
there was no place
for the beds of the infirm
were all forced into the narrow corridors
leading to the speaker’s dais
those who didn’t find the chamber
were scorned
it was time for the village to let go
of more if its old ways
to come into the future
in fact the elders felt it was time
for us to go beyond the future
to make a bold step
into what couldn’t be imagined
there was some laughter
some outrage
some still fuming over the use of light at night
they weren’t willing to sit still
for such moose shines from our elders
the past was still good enough for them
why should we be forced to beyond the present
the elders smiled peacefully
while one of them read the edict
those who felt scorned
would have to get over it
those who had pie enough
would have to share it
those who disliked lighted strip bars
would be blinded
the list went on and on
after each inch into the future
there would be some applause
sometimes people would jump up
swearing and shouting
about how unfair this all was
and make their way out of the chamber
clambering over the beds of the infirm
pushing babies out of the way
in general acting like assholes
there was nothing that could be done
to hold down the price of moose meat
no way to replace
the depleted stocks of the sea
we were faced with harsh times
these hard measures were what was called for
there would be no more green
one less colour to worry about
would save time and money
there would be no more death
and no more birth
things would have to come to
a full stop so we could take full stock
so we could catch our breath
before this plunge into the future
a step that would take us beyond time
into a shuddering unimaginable level of existence
we would have to stop being human forms
be transformed into light or sound
the choice was an individual one
we were assigned numbers
as each number was called
one of us would step forward
to meeting the new millennium
Going back to some of these pieces is visiting a history I’ve forgotten – there is that sense of deja vu and sometimes a bit of amazement at where these pieces traveled. Some were incomplete, more like notes to be refined. This is one of those mystery pieces.
There are echoes of Kafka & Huxley in this one. The compulsory meeting that presents ideas as opposed to actual actions. How are the villagers to move on to the future? I enjoy the opposing views – those who want to remain in the concrete of what they know verses those who want change. This sense that the future holds some sort of golden age of better lives.
The blinding of those who object to the use of light is one of those classic compromises – be careful of what you wish for because that wish may fulfilled in a way you’ll regret. I also keep working on the mythos of the the Village – the sacred nature of strip bars. Then solutions that make no sense – banning the colour green – I was thinking of Woody Allen’s Bananas when the dictator issues his set of demands & rules.
By the end the piece has become a science fiction utopia of bodiless entities stepping from what to what?
Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees & buy coffee in Washington at 2018’s capfireslam.org – sweet,eh? paypal.me/TOpoet
September 19 – feature – Art Bar Poetry series – 8 p.m., Free Times Cafe, #20 College At., Toronto – $5.00
http://It’s No Accident
