I want my money back.

[tun]

Tom told me
I want my money back
I mean he was referring to what the pandemic revealed
to us
people like Tom and I
about people
he said he wanted his money back
that is poetry
I mean I remember it
so it must be
I want my money back
poetry
but look
he was talking about
the great revealing
the pandemic
as it were
to put it in a nutshell
what the pandemic revealed to us
Tom and I and our ilk is that
most people
they want to belong
more than they want to live
look
they told us that
or they acted as if
we live in a human community
and that we are all the same
a community of souls
but that was either a lie
or a mistake they made
but and because
we aren’t all the same
there are two groups
in the world
two types of thing
the ontological divide was occluded to a degree
during our lives before the pandemic
by common decency and by propriety
but perhaps
but the pandemic exposed it clearly
look let me explain it to you
why we feel cheated
we feel cheated
we want a refund
because we didn’t know
we weren't told
that there are two types of people
in this world
TYPE ‘A’ (the pandemic response compliant)
the types who desire to belong
more than they desire to live
or to love
and the types ‘TYPE ‘B’
that desire to live
and to love
more than they desire to belong
but let us be fair
for the first type (TYPE ‘A’)
belonging is life
belonging is the self
belonging
is all that they can ever know
but we didn’t know much about that
not enough about that
Tom and me
until the pandemic revealed that
catastrophic ontological divide
I mean they said never forget
they said never forget
but everybody did forget
come the pandemic
look
they forgot
because they never knew it
but Tom and I
we knew it and we believed it
and we thought everybody else did too
and you can’t blame us for that
Tom and me
we want our money back
we thought that when a snake from hell
shot into their assholes
teeth out
that they would feel it
that they would act
that they would know that it wasn’t safe
but they didn’t react
because to them belonging means everything
it is life itself
if belonging means dying to them
they will happily die
people like Tom and me (TYPE ‘B’)
we just want to live
more than we want to belong
we don’t care about belonging
we recognize ourselves
we know what we like
we like life.

[dukealien]

Well said - I particularly like "but and because," which could be the flag of a true contrarian.

Speaking for myself, more B than A.  But (and because) there are few people I meet who are worth knowing better... collectively, it's nice to have some approval as well as knowing what the next rando will be like, approximately.

Ancient saying:  there are two kinds of people, those who think there are two kinds of people, and those who don't.  ("Know" may substitute for "think" according to taste.)

[busker]

This is a long rant dressed as a poem, but my main grouse is that the rant is terribly pedestrian.

[tun]

Well said - I particularly like "but and because," which could be the flag of a true contrarian.

Speaking for myself, more B than A.  But (and because) there are few people I meet who are worth knowing better... collectively, it's nice to have some approval as well as knowing what the next rando will be like, approximately.

Ancient saying:  there are two kinds of people, those who think there are two kinds of people, and those who don't.  ("Know" may substitute for "think" according to taste.)

It comes down to the individuated and the unindividuated it seems. This is the devastating revelation of our time.

---

This is a long rant dressed as a poem, but my main grouse is that the rant is terribly pedestrian.

This is an unexpected confession. I don't know what it might achieve?

[CRNDLSM]

My problem with this poem is that it truly reflects everything I see in this world right now.  Things im trying not to see.  Mainly: blanket generalizations of entire groups, they they they, us and them, I want mine...
I grew up in a place that taught me my whole life that blanket generalizations and stereotypes are inherently harmful rhetoric.  Inherent.  So using it as so, I mean a lot of repeition here, just kinda highlights that.  Everything else is lost to me, trying not to read they they they over and over again.

Its my problem though, perhaps this could actually say what you want more with less.  Or maybe you got what you wanted, how could I know

[tun]

My problem with this poem is that it truly reflects everything I see in this world right now.  Things im trying not to see.  Mainly: blanket generalizations of entire groups, they they they, us and them, I want mine...
I grew up in a place that taught me my whole life that blanket generalizations and stereotypes are inherently harmful rhetoric.  Inherent.  So using it as so, I mean a lot of repeition here, just kinda highlights that.  Everything else is lost to me, trying not to read they they they over and over again.

Its my problem though, perhaps this could actually say what you want more with less.  Or maybe you got what you wanted, how could I know

I think that we have the individuated and we have the unindividuated. That is a fact of life. It is an act of discrimination to identify and describe such an ontological divide in relation to the catastrophe we are living through. Discrimination is a component of any description. It is not stereotyping or generalizing to say that 'they' these people, stood apart from each other en masse - it was their choice. It is what they did. That is simply reporting a fact.

[CRNDLSM]

My problem with this poem is that it truly reflects everything I see in this world right now.  Things im trying not to see.  Mainly: blanket generalizations of entire groups, they they they, us and them, I want mine...
I grew up in a place that taught me my whole life that blanket generalizations and stereotypes are inherently harmful rhetoric.  Inherent.  So using it as so, I mean a lot of repeition here, just kinda highlights that.  Everything else is lost to me, trying not to read they they they over and over again.

Its my problem though, perhaps this could actually say what you want more with less.  Or maybe you got what you wanted, how could I know

I think that we have the individuated and we have the unindividuated. That is a fact of life. It is an act of discrimination to identify and describe such an ontological divide in relation to the catastrophe we are living through. Discrimination is a component of any description. It is not stereotyping or generalizing to say that 'they' these people, stood apart from each other en masse - it was their choice. It is what they did. That is simply reporting a fact.

Well, I believe what you're saying gets lost in the way you say it.  I think youre also forgetting about people who want to die

[rowens]

I sing the body eclectic!

Sam's the man that cracked the Whitman case!




I is what I am, my word's worth my wit, man.

[Deor Ana Log]

This is a long rant dressed as a poem, but my main grouse is that the rant is terribly pedestrian.

I agree with you completely, it needs to be edited down for clarity, because the statement that Tun is try to make isn't coming across.

[tun]

This is a long rant dressed as a poem, but my main grouse is that the rant is terribly pedestrian.

I agree with you completely, it needs to be edited down for clarity, because the statement that Tun is try to make isn't coming across.

Oh look but what 'statement' do you believe I am trying to make?

[Deor Ana Log]

This is a long rant dressed as a poem, but my main grouse is that the rant is terribly pedestrian.

I agree with you completely, it needs to be edited down for clarity, because the statement that Tun is try to make isn't coming across.

Oh look but what 'statement' do you believe I am trying to make?

I don't understand your point in this poem, but I just assume that you are trying to make some sort of claim? (it isn't clear)

[patrickoday]

I wholeheartedly agree but in a much different way than I believe the poems purpose serves. You are grouping people into type A and type B, fair dichotomy. But unfortunately you can create a dichotomy of everything that you could possibly imagine, those that are something and those that aren't. Not to retract from your point, I vehemently agree with the point that you are making about the compliant and the non-compliant from the pandemic. You also have to remember that there are people in between that are naturally non-compliant but for some reason went along with what the majority of the world was telling them. It may be beneficial to think about certain things in black and white terms but when we come back to the real world, we have to remember that there are people who think things that we cannot even begin to imagine. There are reasoning in others minds that are so sound to them yet so profound to us and we will never be able to understand, even if those profound people could figure out a way to articulate to us their reasoning we still might be lost in the dark.

To that point, there is evil in the world and I believe that the mob mentality that the internet and hyper-connectedness promotes is fertilizing that evil.
I believe that promoting individualization would make the world a better place.
Promote self improvement.
Promote love.
Promote cooperation, not compliance.

[Xlateralus]

For years the chair stood still.
Dead and unthinking taking our weight
measured in prejudice and doubt.

until one day it had risen alive
now purposeless
because we believed

and we Knew