I raise the middle finger

 

I raise the middle finger

 

Modern American comedies

Often feature moments of the public shaming

Of a character

With a crowd usually united in laughing

At the ‘butt of the joke’

 

Is that what an ultra superficial competitive capitalist culture

Looks like?

Coz we are also

& much of the West & the techno East

Have become so

 

Everyone spending fortunes on perfecting their mask

Sticking to the rules

Of behaviour & conversation

 

The Sociologist in me

Knows that all societies need scapegoats

To keep people in line

 

So perhaps it’s nothing new

& witch-hunts occur across the globe

 

 

Since coming to a country town

I never really understood

Just how conformist it would be

& how people are terrified

Of revealing personal details

Or anything of their inner lives

In fact I’ve noticed how much the singers here mumble

For fear their personal thoughts will be decipherable

 

& fear

That like some of us

They’ll be gossiped about

& rumours will abound

& social policing will begin

Of course it can quite easily go further

 

Too all this

I raise the middle finger

My dad's decision to leave the priesthood

To be with my mother

Was the scandal 

I was raised on

The treatment they received from the townsfolk sickening

I can't even bothered listing the things

It's all too fucked up

& so we were raised to think for ourselves

& live as we see fit, to be ourselves

To speak up, to articulate ourselves

& never be ashamed of who we are

To Hell with the crowd!

That's another reason why 

I raise the middle finger

 

 

 

Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2024.