I will consume you
I will devour you whole
My will is unchallengeable
I do not break
I shall not bend

My passion burns hot
It will consume you, you will catch light and ash before daybreak

I am the sea, every ripple is the still before the rogue wave swallows you,
I shall drown you.

I am the end of you, this is a promise.

You will need me, I will crawl inside you and take root,
I am the control.

You know not why you crave me, I am the infection that you desire
Festering inside of you, I will take control.

Your will is my will, your life is mine.

I will consume from the inside out.

No.  I do not care who you are.
I do not care if you are old or young.
I do not care about the colour of your skin, or hair,
The shade of your makeup.
The brand of clothes you wear.

I do not care if you run a country, or a pub,
Or a marathon, or sit at home and eat one,
And before you start, I don’t care if you’ve changed your name either.
You cannot escape.

I am fond of ***** digits, but I do not care
about the size of the digits in your electronic wealth representor,
nor their laundered state.

I do not care how many bullets you have,
I do not care how many friends you have.
If you know your neighbours well, or guard your castle gates,
It’s all the same to me.
Walls, fences, border guards are no barrier.

I do not care if you shelter from the storm
Under detached bricks or cardboard,
Though I dig the shade either way.
I do not care what class you think you are,
Or what class you really are.

I speak not.
I do not care what language you speak, or to which God you pray,
But your words, all your words, are beautiful to me.
They carry my babies across empty space to my imagined paradise.

If your heart beats, if you breathe.
I would like to live in you, with you.

I am no murderer.
If you die, I die.  
If you die, it’s a miscalculation.  
A slight administrative bureaucratic **** up.
It wasn’t me wot done it gov’.  
It was my so-called friends.
Leuk, Azma, Timex.  With friends like them…eh?
We are alike, you and I. because I hate them too
I am collateral.

But know this.  Last gasp of final breath,
From my house whistled roar like crashing economy.
Then silence like dying planet.
Then nothing.

I am better than you.  When I believe
That every human being on this planet,
Regardless of their external appearance
Or myriad individual imperfections,
Is beautiful to me on the inside.
I speak pure, unadulterated, unchallengeable, truth.
How many of you can say that?

I am not racist.
How many of you can truly put hand on heart
And say that.

I do not love you.
I cannot love.
But I need your love for each other.
I need your need to love, to touch, to kiss.
I need your need to stand together, to stand close.

I do not care who you are.

My only nightmare.
Each single one of you, infecting from compassion’s depths,
Coaxing two strangers to love one another
by moving apart.

I cannot compete with Facebook;
Where once I woke in intimacy and closeness,
That gentle, warm and half conscious dream time
Now I wake sharing with 'friends', groups, clubs...
That private softness, you and I,
Now I share with myriad others
All demanding to be served, noticed and paid attention.

I cannot compete with Facebook;
Where once we walked and laughed and noticed all,
Now on waking, breakfast, cafe and bar,
Car, train, walks and bus,
Museums, galleries and restaurants,
They are there, those faceless thousands,
Stealing life's quiet moments, stealing time,
Fast running away.

I cannot compete with Facebook;
Where once there were quiet evenings,
Reading, laughing over thoughts from the day,
Sharing a meal, stories, hopes and dreams,
Now they share them with us,
Those countless, murmuring whisperers
Clamouring to be heard, demanding attention,
Vying to be listened to, watched and played...

I cannot compete with Facebook;
Where once I learned from books,
Encyclopaedia, library, papers and news,
Now it is rumour, gossip, half-truths and lies:
Vegetables are poison, fat is good,
Elvis lives yet, Bowie too,
The moon is green, dogs can paint and cats can fly.
Unfounded, unchallengeable, indisputable,
Stone-cast, indelible facts...

I cannot compete with Facebook;
Where once we debated face-to-face,
Challenged, posed and countered live,
Now a new creed is writ,
From faceless, virtual philosophers,
Throwaway thoughts, prejudice and jibes,
Bigotry and careless bias, social viruses,
Spread at a whim, heedless of hurt or harm.

I cannot compete with Facebook;
When my precious time has finally run away,
As my coffin lid closes,
One last metaphysical thought will flash
Through the sadness of my departing soul:
"What's on your mind?" - Post...