I'd last about an hour as a clerk inside a store
invariably I'd shoot my mouth off
about someone's daughter dressing  like a *****
or making comments about the dreadful things  consumed
which would include a good 99% of the people in the room

I'd eventually end up getting my lights punched  out
after  *******  someone as  a fat ***  undiscerning lout
or cracking  some aside regarding what comprises that crud
and making faces of revulsion "you'd be better off eating mud"
ewwwww, you really eat that stuff?
this store should be sued for selling such bluff

children with diabetes, a third of adults obese
the courtesy clerk dies a little  for lack of surcease
line after line of vapid consumers
mindless knee-**** impetuosity belay the rumors
what's an adulterant, what's a filler?
propylene glycol alginate, yum yum
sorbitan mono sterate, shut up and eat it, its fun!
I can't even pronounce it, much less do I  care
need I be a scientist to enjoyably savor fare

Go ahead and poison yourself
the quirky clerk exclaimed
its ever so clear you're stupid and lame
stay mired in your pig-headed muck of  ignorance
you're exactly what they want
another brain dead consumer
a regular culinary savant
stuff  your face with no remorse nor heed
no worries, the clerk of little courtesy knows your need
he'll limply wheel  out your cart of miserable choices for you
and wise-crack some snarky rejoinder
then promptly get  beaten,  black and blue

(Voice 1-male)
This is not living
This sitting, nightly arrangement
Its purpose of entertainment
How could I care for the world around if I cannot hear it, touch it, taste it for myself?
We watch the same screen from opposite ends of the world
You have the best seat and I allow it, so you don't miss out
And we fill the void between us with empty crisp packets and the last dregs of a lonely can.
Once not so long ago
You would rest your legs over mine and consume the space.
And although I complained,
I never once minded, not really.

(Voice 2-female)
I wish you would touch me
Like you used to
Before we stagnated somewhere between Eastenders and Big Brother.
The way you would run your fingers up and down the soles of my feet.
Before work piled on the pressure
And you became too tired to tell me about your day
I remember when we didn't need the tv,
When our entertainment was the sound of each other’s voices,
Or the crackle of vinyl as we made love under its arches of sound,
Upon this very sofa
Where we now sit in awkward silence, together, yet apart.

(Voice 1-male)
I wish you still asked me about my day,
Even though I may not answer because I don't want to bring you down
Still it would be nice to know you cared.
I wish that remote would separate itself from our relationship,
Instead of being our adulterant, as we use it for the only pleasure between us.
I wish that at the end of the night, you would sit with me in silence,
The way we used to
Just wrapped in each other’s arms
The only entertainment we needed then,
Was listening for the moment our heartbeats synchronised
I wish we could have that again
Instead of you going to bed without so much as a good night kiss.

(Voice 2-female)
I wish you would follow me to bed
Instead of wallowing in front
Of your latest boxset conquest
You don't even say goodnight
As if I am doing you a disservice
And i wish you knew that in bed I cry
Longing for you to be as enthralled by me
As you is the TV.
When was our bed no longer the source of entertainment?

(Voice 1-male)
I wish you knew that I cry when you go to bed
Missing the time
When we were more important than sleep.
I wish I could turn off the television
I wish I could turn off my mind.
But I see that you no longer want me,
Or have any interest in me
When all I need is for you to ask
How are you?
Throw your arms around me
Take me away from the world
I need no other entertainment than that
Most of all
What I wish
Is that we could silence the world
And just be honest
And see that we are not that different
We are the same as we used to be
Before television took the life
Out of you and me
I wish, just for once, we would talk