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xjf Feb 2021
The world continues to move
even when you are at rest
Passing us by while we are sleeping

The world continues to hurl on
not caring that you are gone
A hallow feeling keeps creeping  

The birds continue to fly by
semis continue to race the red light
Even when that’s the reason why
you're looking dead in the eyes
Ankita Dash May 2020
listen,
I was still covered in placenta when they locked me in this golden cage

fast at work,
they didn't care how calloused their hands got
rough ropes fed through the pulleys,
and sewed into the heavy haze of distraction.

listen,
I promise you,
if they could leave this pedestal and share the warmth that is burning and bubbling for them, they would do it;
but the fall would **** them first.

listen,
there are two ways to rob someone of their humanity-
to idolise them
and to ignore them;
so perhaps we all share the same emptiness that way.
Beowulf Mar 2020
Big brother; surveilled; rat runs of pounds;
Instaweb orbs, tendrils confound,
Face timely chats across coded binary,
Clocked on, logged in let it begin;

Around and around the wheels about town,
The daily homage to tubes underground,
Whistlestop lunches, lanyards and passes,
Payslip available labour force saleable.

PIN, Password, Face recognition,
Upload, drawn down, robotic volition,
Subdural naked forced aspirations,
Chasing dragons of faked motivation.

Push and chug and push and chug,

The relentless surge of more from above,
Steady inbound for disembarkation,
Life's sourjourn of self realisation.
Aneesh H Jan 2020
'Every competition - is not
A struggle to win over others
But a battle over one's own insecurities
To overcome a perception of exclusion'
I have been a part of the rat race, yet did not want to be a rat. I have often felt, that there is so much of aimless competition in our daily lives that the purpose of doing an activity and experiencing it without the secret feeling of jealousy, and an urge to win it, is nearly impossible to have!

I look at this maddening race of life, from an outsider's perspective. Rather than be a part of the mad race, I would be happy to stand outside and introspect. I
How graceful and more fulfilling it would have been to progress at each one's own pace, pausing a moment in between, to reflect upon the freshly bloomed flower and its beauty, or the morning chirp of the the birds, their flight and gaiety?

Is competition a necessary outgrowth of civilization, or a gangrene that the body of civilization can do away with? Has it dis-cultured us?! What are your thoughts?
Chandra S Nov 2019
You asked:
"How you came to your dead end?"

How did I?
Perhaps too much of chasing butterflies,
or maybe running barefoot in hot, avid pursuit
of those looping, berserk kites

adrift like airborne serpents

in delirious evening skies.

Then there were those chimeric rainbows -
sedately fantastic illusions of dream jobs,
and loving homes with ambrosial glows.

They all eventually led to the same prosaic end,
for, any-which-way, all roads wound up
at appropriately conventional
and consequently beaten bend.

Till the chase went on, it was the same old story -
All fulfilled ambition promptly subject to
increasingly falling marginal utility.

After all of it was said and done,
every little crown lost and won,
the agony of the question still remained
no last words arose,
to which to exclaim and say Yay!

Life had me in its hook. See:?
while this is what it meant to be free: !



Fossilized in my den, I stared wistfully
at life's irrevocable loose ends
and this is how my friend
I arrived at my proverbial dead ends.
Inspired by the question in a poem by Inner Incognito at https://poetizer.com/poem/555814

WELCOME

Sad you are?
Join the club!
I think you'll find there's plenty of

like headed minds and wandered souls
On the path to pay the toll
But like all paths we're headed down
If stayed the course you'll come around
So pick a seat and tell us friend

How you came to your dead end.

© Inner Incognito, 2019
Joseph Rice Sep 2019
Rorschach sounds test door lock found
watching ninetofivers run the hamster wheel.
I could complain
that would be sane, right?

Efficacy of coffee in drawing truth from words
belies belief belittling lies obvious strength.
Who are you to say “light"?
Just another dark eyed zombie echoing societal platitudes.

The days ways say stay to
the ***** of the broke brained overweight.
Hunger in the eyes sunder intelligent minds
beneath the crushing hand of expectation.

Buy me a sliver of happiness
Or was it
Cry me a river of helplessness
Memory fails snails snotting up rails
that funny ******* find with palm’s hand.
Andrew Harris Apr 2019
Sometimes I wonder how we do sleep
Serving the dodgy companies we keep
All kicking and scrounging for the very first place
Dictionary definition of a rat race
Pay off those losers we elect to lead
Stealing from the mouths that we're meant to feed
Enslaving the very clothes upon my back
I feel the sting but I hear no crack, no crack

-John Butler
Lyric excerpt from Revolution by John Butler trio
I believe that far to often we do strive for first place at expense of others
Abigail Rose Mar 2019
I never asked to join the rat race.
But being a cognizant participant of the
perpetual scramble
I've noticed
it seems
we're always neck-and-neck,
nose-and-nose--
it's me!
No, *******--
it's you--you're winning--oh,
wait--it's me again!
You!
Me!
Him!
ME!
you,
him, me, you...
Is this a marathon we're supposed to sprint?
Are  humans even capable of doing that?
Or... hamsters?
I slow down and become a fat ******* lump,
moving slowly, and yet somehow,
there you are beside me still.
There is our row of hamsters wheels,
and here is our imaginary race
to a finish that exists in an industrial dream.
The soul resides in the breath
we can never catch
as we are racing--
You're WINNING,
I'm winning!
You, me, you, him, her, me... again.
And again.
And again.
For efficiency's sake
we race in a row.
I need a ******* break.
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