Symptoms Of My Wasting Disease

I spent many long hours growing dull in front of the big screen,

flipping channels idly with my mind completely disengaged

I wasted years of precious brain cycles, simply wanting something new

cars, clothes, electronics or homes, it was but the lust that mattered

I sat chewing salty snacks like a vacuous, bipedal ruminant

a few calorie-laden morsels at a time, just keeping my mouth moving

I drove nearly everywhere except within my home

a soft, fat, white worm encased in a manufactured plastic shell

I always spent everything I made and then charged even more

now growing old, I seek assistance from my government and family

I knew my god had decreed I should go forth and procreate

I raised up a lot of vapid halfwits: simply venal, but quite loud and proud

I was certainly blessed by God as the politicians often called for

the world owed me a living and I glowed like a fat, bright star

I steadily gained weight and became less active all the time

finally injured at some banal pursuit, I gave up even trying any more

I found the local newspaper to be my highest reading level

I never spent a moment improving my meager employment skills

I wasted thousands on hair replacement and phony erection pills

even more on sound systems and silly, so-called, home entertainment

I needed a new vehicle, it seemed, about every couple of years

never asking why, I felt kind of sorry for those that had to do without

I watched sports on television, drank beer and ate snacks from plastic bags

later ordered pizza and thought about all of those new cars

I planned but little, saving nothing and then, facing a forced early retirement,

tried to save up in a hurry but was quickly savaged by clever brokers

I tried with desperation to retain the promise of my youth

yet the more I spent, perversely, the more quickly that I worsened

I could not find our country’s enemies on a simple map of the world

yet I supported their extinction in wars marketed alongside other ads

I bought my meat wrapped in cellophane laid out in styrofoam holders

cursing the bloody tree huggers who might cost me a nickel more

I spent far too many hours alone, going nowhere in my car

polluting the air and wasting petroleum, just idling in traffic jams

I always came around when everybody else went somewhere, too

forever stuck in the crowds, one of the most faithful of the sheep

I could always be counted on to fall for the next big, manufactured Thing

That is, to just have to have, the next really stylish, expensive bauble

I finally saved enough to retire and then, promptly, came my cancer

my money drained off quickly, to caring corporate health providers

I had but faint conception of the bigger world that existed all around me

though little did it matter, so small was my imagination

I purchased, consumed and discarded, excreted and respired

and noble beasts became extinct as I helped lay the world to waste

I smoked, drank, gambled, shopped, prayed and pledged allegiance

and I found my life’s true meaning raising up offspring just like me

I sneezed, wheezed, farted and belched, coughed and blew my nose

hawked and spit, scratched, picked and peeled and then lay very still

I watched nature shows while my cars leaked oil on the driveway

everywhere the land was cleared to provide me with convenience stores

I heated my un-insulated house so we could wear shorts in the winter time

voted for those that told me it was patriotic to shop and to consume

I favored SUVS, jet skis, snowmobiles and ATVS for my dulling pleasure

Laughed at saving any places for animals, trees or my descendants

I cast off my clothes before they were well worn

even as I spent all my money long before it was earned

I learned to shit where the urge came and then to walk away in peace

But surely I will not be shit on, walked away from, and forgotten

I leave behind a legacy of simple-minded ignorance and waste

I rest easy for my work is part of something far larger than myself