Hunger strike

Neuroscientists now say,
our guts shrank
as our brains grew-
in finite-ness of our Energy,
due to our limited potential.

(1. the maximum energy output
is metabolically capped
2. larger brains accompany
smaller intestines in primates)

Have you heard that we only use ten percent
of our wetware? A grey area, I guess.

(Our brain is at best two percent of our total body mass,
yet devours twenty percent of our energy -at rest)

For better or worse, without any reception
or honeymoon, we are wedded to this
precious ratio for the next
few billion years it seems...

The smarter we get,
the harder it ALL becomes to digest.

Repetition can find and (sometimes will)
correct errors such as duplication, repetition
and redundancy.
(Try, try, try again)

Do I look good in these genes?
The smarter we get,
the harder it becomes to fit in
to our thinking caps
with all these insatiable cravings

to consume (us).

(This poem was inspired by the article "How Humans Evolved Supersize Brains" featured on Quanta Nov. 2015)


Painting by Gustav Wentzel, 'Breakfast II' c. 1885 in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Three bars

ATTN: s p a n s
have shrunk.

Our opposable thumbs bent back-
ward devolving in
QWERTY
case(s).

Connections are compared to signal strength,
the invisible lines we weave like webs
entangle everyone where wifi may be free-
for all-(paying) Customers-
staying safely inside
the gridlines.

Tipping is no longer
an indication of gratitude
for the service provided by a server.

There are no more bag people.
Paper or plastic?
Paper breaks down
into change.

The chip
did not deter identity theft.
The chip finds lost pets.
Everyone wants someone else's
wallet, until one realizes
'we carry no cash'.
Everyone wants a companion,
that doesn't care how much money
they have or owe.

Listen,
everybody is-
interested
in selling
you (on)
their junk (bonds).

See,
everyone is watching
your feed,
none are buying
your story.

Freedom fighters are all
chained to their cause,
the wealthy
are anchored by money
and the drifting souls drown in a sea
of selfies, imaginary images
of the good side
alone.

A lone observer
does not participate
in-
justice
spread
faster than 4G 5G.

New message Alert!
Precedence over Presence,
interruptions are multi-
tasking opportunities.

Our memory
re-written for the best utilization
of available space.

We should be doing something
(more),
we should go,
we should have gone,
we should be
(more)
(there)-
I swear
to never regret
intentionally doing nothing
for nobody but me.
We should turn off our location and reach further
blindly feeling our way around this life
we hold in the palms of our crooked hands,
rather than simply progress
across the monkey
bars
just to reach the other side
for fun.




Image of Radio tower, Boston College c. 1920, Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions].

Fish & Chips

There are many fish in the sea

but none exactly quite like me

Not one true carbon copy.

No nanotech cloning imagery.

Our markings are masterfully made

schooled in survival, games well played

decisions and debts to be made, repaid

resoled, rebooted,

eyes on tails

follow ink splotched surging trails

dreaming afloat where freedom sails.

Migrating maps pre-installed, recalled

streams of consciousness, or so-called

evolution, defragging currently stalled

in sleep-state.

Compress and refract by

blue chip, red chip, intelli-chip hacked,

flowing, downloading, backing-up tracts

for holograms in fact-

particulate of calcium carbonate,

brackish, choking, saline tracing, mineral state.

Four-going feets and fins of fate

sedated intoxicated waste-

carried along ripping liquid lies enmeshed in

holy nets, trawling along with severed ties and

anchored ambivalently under horizontal blue skies

and producing the Lowest Common Diatom

there can Be with so much salt. 

Composed 3/14/15.

Image of painting by Herbert James Draper (1910) "Flying fish" [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.