Gum and Gods

Gum

Stuck

To my shoe

Or

bottom.

 

I walk around

before realising

That the

Tackiness

Is actually

Chewing

Gum.

 

Spat out

Or

Left behind

By somebody.

 

And now attached to me.

 

I can’t remember the last time

I experienced this;

Whether fewer people are chewing

Or I am less exposed, I don’t know.

 

Sometimes you have to place the shirt or

trouser in the freezer

Which usually only

Partially works.

 

There is also a magic

Chemical

You can apply;

And,

It is perhaps the invention of this agent

That has negated

The placing

Of the stuff,

For,

When there is a remedy or a quick-fix

The threat diminishes,

The act of doing

Shifts

And transforms

From a meaningless

to pointless.

 

Twisting action into futility

Is sometimes

Seen as the role

Of bureaucracies,

This time

It is a collaboration of

Industrial chemists.

 

Now, imagine

There were equivalent

Quick-fixes

To similar

Frustrations?

 

The effort to wake and climb from bed on cold winter morning;

Hunger

Thirst

The frustration of being unable to express oneself at critical moments;

Anger

Jealousy

The realisation that I am old and everyone I love, gone.

 

You would likely need more than a couple of drops

To have change.

 

Take this, pill three times a day for a week and

You will no longer

Feel anxious

When arriving at work.

 

Or more modern;

Apply this plaster

To your right

arm

And before you know it you will be assertive.

 

All human emotions,

Inactions,

Passivities

And fears

Remedied.

 

Would this be

The Arriving?

The Grand Unified Theory –

All things big and small together?

 

Or,

Would it be the end?

More a

Time of Revelation

than happiness.

 

This would be the wiping-out

Of the Human Condition;

We would either morph

Into Gods

Or become no more relevant

than the gum I stash under the table.