We spend a lifetime
feathering our nests
layering it with comforts and warmth,
selecting the perfect colours
all set-off with the hum of the technology the modern world demands.
We build this sanctuary only to pay handsomely to leave it,
because an algorithm suggests it's what we'd like.
It knows our age
and that we are comfortable in life
and thinks we could afford it - but it doesn't know us.
It feeds us a dream we don't want
of clear blue waters
an idealistic,
remote and off-grid log cabin,
a detox - like the world we've carefully curated is now a mill-stone 'round our necks
"Get away from it all," is the message - but is this not our nest,
our world
the very air we have chosen to breathe?
What bizarre luxury we have,
to find our own success
deemed to be inappropriate,
claustrophobic,
even insufficient!
Some - those living out on the streets
the ones failing to even find a nights sleep
lucky to find an uncomfortable sofa
a friend of a friend of a friend
those with nothing to escape from
those with only their rucksack and a list of failing options
they aren't looking for a dreamy horizon - more just the four walls we - the fortunate ones
are told we are so desperate to flee from!
Maybe this exit is thrown at us
because they know we’ve forgotten how to inhabit
the prison we have created for ourselves.
Perhaps the "away" we crave isn't a coordinate,
a location,
nor a perfect sunny coastline,
more a break from thinking - the restless mind that builds a world
high in the clouds
then dies
starved due to its lack of oxygen - the beautiful reality it finally won,
killing it!
We just might be the architects of our own gilded cage - one that follows us wherever we go.
