F-r-i-c-t-i-o-n
Surrounds us
Seemingly arbitrary
yet heavily enforced.
For all the promises
of instant gratification
So often our lives
roil with delay and frustration.
Burrs in the channels
Deadlines and penalties.
Fine print and asterisks
Actions pending review.
Extra steps and offshoots
in the process,
loop-de-loops in the tubing
—never linear—
Pressure building on keyboards
Sixteen cumbersome screens
separate us
from the Submit button.
Please hold!
Our call volumes are unexpectedly high.
You are Caller Twenty-One.
Please wait to be transferred
to the next representative.
Evergreen promises of
Change is coming!
from our appointed or acquired leaders.
More to come tomorrow!
We face queues everywhere,
virtual, physical and systematic
that keep us ever expectant
while our hope flags and falters.
This hang-time is intentional
The system designs it so.
The longer humans
are caught in the waiting game
the more we risk diluting our senses
and numbing our defenses.
The apparatus is built
to distract and bore us
until we:
shrug our shoulders
acquiesce
close our lips
log off
go home.
The abrading of our purpose
is the point.
Winning
is not supposed to be easy.
But if we are privy
to the art of the game
then we can preserve
focus and succeed.
Look around to detect those
treacherous rough spots
that surround us and
then wield your rasp with gusto.
Grind down the cat tongue edges
and snarly barbs
where our clothes snag
and minds catch.
Be keen to the traps
that still our spirits
and then disarm them wholly.
Clear the course for those who follow.
Turn the rough friction we face
on the saddles of our status quo
into free-flowing ingenuity
towards a kinder way forward.
