"oversimplification" poems

yesterday my feet rested comfortably on the bar of someone else's chair and my eyelids slid heavy and the world seemed slow a graph of survivorship curves glowing blurry on the whiteboard and then words slid from behind a neatly trimmed white beard ". . . .as our bodies are programmed to die." as our bodies are programmed to die. *thousands of miles away one gleaming thought against a murky sky (that's how i imagine it anyway--murky, cold, stagnant air) a frantic explosion of lean muscle power and a body launching into the lake. he was 17 and in that moment gears somewhere in this world shifted, numbers were crunched and some profound device processed the seconds, linking and unlinking them with an automatic, well-oiled certainty he was 17 and the number on his football jersey suited him like wool socks on winter feet his stride under the lights a weekly prize to all hungry, bleacher-ed, washed-up life-hunters bundled against october-night chill-streaked skies they drank hot cocoa and he took three sips of gatorade he was 17 and his smile and his curls and we all hear about hospitals but this feels different because he was 17 and suddenly, instantaneously his body was just a beep and his skin turned the color of the walls first the ICU painted quick brushstrokes across his wrists then it stopped giving a **** at all and the water rushed endlessly, heartlessly. when I shift through memories and find his seven-year old face in my mind, i remember a gap where he'd lost a front tooth and i remember sunlight streaming behind his hair it was valentine's day and he gave me a small smile and a silver charm bracelet in a powder blue box.* i shifted my feet heard the snap of a binder closing and all i could think about was the oversimplification of words and survivorship curves and 17 years and and piles of numbers spurting from a computer and an echo of a splash.

0

Sep 25, 2014

Sep 25, 2014 at 4:32 PM UTC

rachel-g

biology

yesterday my feet rested comfortably on the bar of someone else's chair and my eyelids slid heavy and the world seemed slow a graph of survivorship curves glowing blurry on the whiteboard and then words slid from behind a neatly trimmed white beard ". . . .as our bodies are programmed to die." as our bodies are programmed to die. *thousands of miles away one gleaming thought against a murky sky (that's how i imagine it anyway--murky, cold, stagnant air) a frantic explosion of lean muscle power and a body launching into the lake. he was 17 and in that moment gears somewhere in this world shifted, numbers were crunched and some profound device processed the seconds, linking and unlinking them with an automatic, well-oiled certainty he was 17 and the number on his football jersey suited him like wool socks on winter feet his stride under the lights a weekly prize to all hungry, bleacher-ed, washed-up life-hunters bundled against october-night chill-streaked skies they drank hot cocoa and he took three sips of gatorade he was 17 and his smile and his curls and we all hear about hospitals but this feels different because he was 17 and suddenly, instantaneously his body was just a beep and his skin turned the color of the walls first the ICU painted quick brushstrokes across his wrists then it stopped giving a **** at all and the water rushed endlessly, heartlessly. when I shift through memories and find his seven-year old face in my mind, i remember a gap where he'd lost a front tooth and i remember sunlight streaming behind his hair it was valentine's day and he gave me a small smile and a silver charm bracelet in a powder blue box.* i shifted my feet heard the snap of a binder closing and all i could think about was the oversimplification of words and survivorship curves and 17 years and and piles of numbers spurting from a computer and an echo of a splash.

43

The way forward From left to right From the bottom, upwards Version 1 to 3.0 We progress In hope that we're improving Enhancing Building up Refurbishing Innovating But are we, really? We come a full circle Only to learn Life was never complicated in the first place We made it so In our pursuit of oversimplification

0

Apr 9, 2017

Apr 9, 2017 at 2:58 PM UTC

deeteaful

It's simple!

The way forward From left to right From the bottom, upwards Version 1 to 3.0 We progress In hope that we're improving Enhancing Building up Refurbishing Innovating But are we, really? We come a full circle Only to learn Life was never complicated in the first place We made it so In our pursuit of oversimplification

17

A glass elevator ...stalled... Self-solvent sky-high-ocean-deep matterless mind & the oversimplification of plainclothes miracles ~Homecoming~

0

Mar 30, 2015

Mar 30, 2015 at 12:25 AM UTC

Onoma

Glass Elevator

A glass elevator ...stalled... Self-solvent sky-high-ocean-deep matterless mind & the oversimplification of plainclothes miracles ~Homecoming~

11

Just because everything is as it needs to be doesn't mean that humans act accordingly. When one reads: "Everything" a ballet of meanings begins to dance before one's mind. Is it every particular thing that exists? Is it a metaphor for the universe? Is it an oversimplification? An over-generalization? The way I interpret it is "the way of Reality". Our dream-scape of a reality. Our Cybermental construct of the realm we've inherited. -- Everything is just as it must be for our reality to be as it needs to be yet we act in corrupt, selfish, unsustainable ways and expect everything else to keep up with us. It doesn't seem to work that way, my friends. Though we are the spawn of it, and though we observe it we are no higher nor lower than anything we can observe.

0

Dec 19, 2012

Dec 19, 2012 at 8:23 AM UTC

Anubis-the-Philosomancer

Everything is as it needs to be, except human nature.

Just because everything is as it needs to be doesn't mean that humans act accordingly. When one reads: "Everything" a ballet of meanings begins to dance before one's mind. Is it every particular thing that exists? Is it a metaphor for the universe? Is it an oversimplification? An over-generalization? The way I interpret it is "the way of Reality". Our dream-scape of a reality. Our Cybermental construct of the realm we've inherited. -- Everything is just as it must be for our reality to be as it needs to be yet we act in corrupt, selfish, unsustainable ways and expect everything else to keep up with us. It doesn't seem to work that way, my friends. Though we are the spawn of it, and though we observe it we are no higher nor lower than anything we can observe.

18

Gimbal eyed and shrugged - at rooks caw and ravens croaked shriven threaded dawn. ------------------------------------------- Syllabically Oversimplification Abomination

0

Mar 4, 2016

Mar 4, 2016 at 1:17 PM UTC

ObadiahGrey

Untitled

Gimbal eyed and shrugged - at rooks caw and ravens croaked shriven threaded dawn. ------------------------------------------- Syllabically Oversimplification Abomination

7

When you say all lives matter I hear black lives don’t; An oversimplification of a phrase that held meaning Your statement was never questioned You just broadened ours until the guilt lessened No one need apologize for the crimes of others I know you never held a gun and you love all the same But ignoring just breeds ignorance so things will never change All lives may matter but day after day who is the prey? Turn on the TV, it’s another black name

0

Jun 24, 2017

Jun 24, 2017 at 2:59 AM UTC

xanderkylepoetry

All Lives Matter?

When you say all lives matter I hear black lives don’t; An oversimplification of a phrase that held meaning Your statement was never questioned You just broadened ours until the guilt lessened No one need apologize for the crimes of others I know you never held a gun and you love all the same But ignoring just breeds ignorance so things will never change All lives may matter but day after day who is the prey? Turn on the TV, it’s another black name

9

Recent telepathic conversations With interstellar installations Cause titillations—skin sensations, I’m simply over oversimplification. Salutations, the amalgamation of information Leads to transformation, transmutation, Transfiguration—my publications Turn blood relations into star constellations.

0

Feb 28, 2025

Feb 28, 2025 at 8:47 PM UTC

KingAuthor2019

"Stellar Scriptures"

Recent telepathic conversations With interstellar installations Cause titillations—skin sensations, I’m simply over oversimplification. Salutations, the amalgamation of information Leads to transformation, transmutation, Transfiguration—my publications Turn blood relations into star constellations.

8