Sunday, October 12, 2014

763 - On The Other Hand

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #182) presents a list of words
that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:
machine, flesh, tease, lotion, gimmick, hypnotizing,
lust, chickens, torture, uniform, liquor, brains, trains


On The Other Hand

There are machines that take our jobs
But do ones that have been fatal to children in the past.

Whores sell their flesh
But some use the money to educate and feed their family.

Advertisers tease us
But commerce is what pays for our jobs.

The cosmetics industry sells fake lotions
But placebos have been shown to work.

Every week there is a new gimmick
But we crave variety and change.

We are hypnotized by affluence
But few can really achieve it.

We are expected to lust for more
But we live in a finite world.

We imprison people
But demand chickens be released from their cages.

We are promised uniform opportunity
But the promise is never kept.

We are told we over-consume liquor
But have seen the effects of prohibition.

Our brains are used to devise evil things
But they devise miraculous things as well.

The media trains us to be compliant
But we sometimes rebel when we see a wrong.

We take firm ‘moral’ stands on every issue
But refuse to consider the value of the other side.
.
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© J Cosmo Newbery 2014
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19 comments:

  1. Life is complicated, isn't it?

    Pace and joy!

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    1. Certainly value in pacing myself. Thank you.

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  2. The enigma of living in a "civilised" world. Unfortunately the alternative is worse.

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  3. I think it's fair to say you have the world nailed...and much wisdom equalling up those scales

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  4. So interesting your use of color!

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  5. Interesting analogy with those chickens; it's put me right off my dinner tonight. :)

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  6. Contradiction we see in everything while one is but another side of the same card...

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  7. Damn if we do and damn if we don't. And ones does get tired of that blasted knife. Great poem.

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  8. "We imprison people
    But demand chickens be released from their cages."

    I appreciate this as a metaphor, the way we imprison people in figurative cages.

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  9. It is an oxymoron, isn't it? I like how you set this up and presented it. Nice, JCosmo.

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  10. You've just created all of these reasons that prove how life can often be seen as a mental asylum...thank you,

    Elizabeth

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  11. Interesting take on these words...very.

    http://whenthepenbleeds.blogspot.ca/2014/10/when-when.html

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  12. Why is it that we are so quick to condemn and so reluctant to forgive?

    There is not balance in that aspect.

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  13. Very good...but then, on the hand.... :)

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  14. Powerful. We are marvelous and deadly, depending on how we lean. Your poem's contradictions are food for thought and change.

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  15. There is always the other view and many do not bother! You brought out the various scenarios most appropriately! Great lines Cosmo!

    Hank

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  16. great back and forth scenerio exposing the contradtions of our age ... well done.

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