Not about the Beatles per se

 The Beatles were so right about our materialist, individualist world –

“You don’t see me”

& I don’t see you

 

& this causes so much frustration

Which easily heats to anger –

 

We don’t see one another,

Because essentially

One cannot be perceived –

 

One appears to another through a series of masks & mirrors

 

& today

Most people we see

Appear via screens

Rarely presenting themselves

Other than in the capacity of a functionary

 

What I’m saying also

Is that you don’t hear me

& I don’t hear you –

 

Were it ever possible to

It would be impossible

Using the today’s language of

Commerce & politicking & power,

To attempt intimacy

 

I say something

I think is beautiful

& I wish to share the beauty I feel with you

 

But a word catches

You don’t like that word

All you see is that word

That becomes the focus –

 

The signifier

Not the signified

 

This is especially clear in our age

Of individualist materialism –

 

I am open

But still waiting for real proof

That it has not always been thus.

 

--

Nevertheless,

Miraculously

In rare moments

We feel each other –

 

The inside,

We see & hear one another –

 

How does it come about?

I wonder

 

& is it so incompatible

With what some people

Call God?

 

 

©Malachi Doyle 2021.