Image by ChatGPT
The Sunday Whirl presents twelve words for us to use in a creative writing piece.
This weeks words are:
favour, kind, jinx, spell, sorcery, gift, denial, child, style, rapture, truce, way
The Boy Who Had Everything.
Born into extreme privilege,
Wanting for nothing.
No favours were refused,
All gifts given, were expected.
Denial of wants unheard of.
But is this where happiness lies?
The way to satisfaction?
Or is it a kind of treadmill,
A hedonic carrot and stick?
Can happiness lie in "more"?
Is money the source of joy?
The beguiling rapture of the ledger?
But...money begets power
And power absolutely begets money.
The sorcery of the image.
A "win at all costs" mentality,
A style of social warfare.
No spell or truce conceded,
Nor any prisoners taken—
Weaknesses that may jinx.
So, like a drain-hole on life,
Community wealth steadily moves
Away from those who need it
Towards those who only want it.
The French had a solution.
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A powerful piece. You've woven those words together to paint a poignant picture of the corrupting influence of wealth and power. The image of community wealth draining away from those who truly need it is particularly striking.
ReplyDeletePerhaps all of humanity in general have a piece of that boy within. Though mother Earth has given us all, we want and take more, more, more.
ReplyDeleteI confess I gave a snort of surprised laughter at your last line. If we could have revolutions without the violence ...
ReplyDeleteThey are called elections.
DeleteI too thought vive la revolution as I left - jae
ReplyDeletePowerful poem. Love the ending.
ReplyDeleteYour creative writing is a powerful critique of privilege and the illusions wealth creates – I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a world where wealth and power often dictate worth, where money fuels dominance and a ruthless, win-at-all-costs mentality – a battlefield where only the strongest survive, and kindness is seen as weakness.
You don’t feel pity for the boy who has everything, only a sobering realisation that such a life is as much a curse as a gift. But I feel so sorry for those people – no kindness, no love, no heart. They might see me as weak, but I’d rather have a life full of love and compassion than one driven by greed and power. Maybe I should pack my bags and head to France – they seemed to figure this out a while ago.
An electric chair seems somehow fitting.
ReplyDeleteIt’s incredible how art can provoke such powerful reactions
DeleteMake him eat cake till he chokes on it ;-)
ReplyDeleteMarie Antoinette would be proud — or horrified. Hard to say.
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