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# Friction
- URL: https://dianaludwick.com/friction/
- Published: 2026-02-10T16:48:40.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:11:56.000Z
- Description: “Friction,” a commentary on business and social processes, written February 10, poem 041 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.
- Author: Diana Ludwick
- Tags: 2026 Poetry Challenge, Poems, #Migrated-1792872215677, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 20:03

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.