Enslave yourself to money and you’ll see
No value in what in no cost there be —
Enslave yourself to a possessive mate,
Report in early, often, long and late
Nor let that lover ever, ever see
You smiling when you’re (gasp!) talking to me
Or anybody else might bring you joy
(There’s nothing jealousy will more annoy) —
Enslave yourself to the approval of
The masses who go ignorant of love
By that approval then prepare to be
Continuing through your life lovelessly
For if they see you not wearing a frown
They’ll straightaway tear your happiness down
True happiness being to them unknown
Intolerant they’ve of its presence grown
Don’t break into a joyful little dance
For surely they will leap upon the chance
To take that joyful little dance away
By finding swift some other tune to play —
Enslave yourself social media to
Prepare a world of misery to view
Dressed up as something really wonderful
Which your dreams of sufficiency annul
Not able ever to the truth believe
Of any photograph that you receive
Believe them all you tend to anyway
Guaranteeing a mis’rable day
Of useless, shallow, vain comparison
By which spurious status may be won
The same since foolishness was e’er begun:
The Master’s “bubble, reputation” —
Enslave yourself to food, prepare to be
Craving stimulus perpetually
By which you find yourself increasingly
Subject to grievous inability
Bodily motion pleasurable know
As in expanding corpulence you go —
Enslave yourself to sex, prepare to be
Led by the nose for everyone to see
Expense and inconvenience galore
Those little pussies always wanting more —
Enslave yourself to drugs, repeated know
How mis’rable you afterward may go
For there is little in benighted life
Save time beneath a skilled torturer’s knife
Compares to so excessive misery
The which an opiate withdrawal be —
Enslave yourself to lies, well then, forsooth
It’s never clearly you will know the truth
And if of it you glimpse a little bit
You won’t be able to remember it —
Enslave yourself to one domestic roof
Remain from the surrounding world aloof
While you endure in willing daily wise
Domestic power plays, bitches and lies
Of those who lay them on because they know
You feel you have no other place to go
And will put up with any vile or grim
Passing petty junior high school whim
Perpetually keeping mis’ry’s score
And dangling it your grinding nose before —
Enslave yourself to petrol-smelling drink
Prepare to hurl into your kitchen sink
Relationships which had been good for you
Before effluvia acidic spew
Such as can never they eliminate
From wounded consciousness you thus create —
In short, enslave yourself to anything,
Outside yourself, your inner self should bring
Though it initially so easy seem,
Eliminate the joys of which you dream
From here that way looks simple, sweet and short
But past first hidden curve it self abort
For you’ve allowed what ought to be a tool
To turn you into an indentured fool
Be Master those influences unto
Are ever struggling to master you
*****
Among us, poets are not paid. The poet/editor of this website, being physically disabled, lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level. Become a patron of the fine arts at: https://www.gofundme.com/are-you-a-patron-of-the-arts
