Caught In the Fracture of Distraction
by Michael Doyle

The present generation's grab for screens
Is like a plague sucking life and it demeans
By going to extremes to get enough attention
The attention seekers lose right intention

This constant indiscretion shapes our fate
If we do not turn back, it will soon be too late
There is an insurgency in these attention wars
With so few realizing they appear as bores

Bleak reminders of a generation lost in place
Forgetting the worthiness of what to embrace
Insurgents know attention is a tool of control
This incessant madness is a destroyer of souls

Un-owed debts are paid in intimate currency
There are no fair trades in the attention economy
These hijackers of social media force our experience
To be a shared moment not to be lost to deference

But to be examined in detailed, sweeping observation
Made in a zero-sum calculation of more devastation
The maelstrom swirls in an overload of every moment
That invades, intruding the collective mind to torment

The idea of choice has become little more than absurdity
As the age of infinite scroll takes its toll in complexity
A second layer of passing night hides in the starlight
Twinkled mindfulness almost blinding to those of pure sight

The triptych model of the psyche has moved past connection
Into a lived mantra of misguidance and blind misdirection
Twitch-clicking on the so-called headlines of our days
Until like frogs in boiling water, our focus only strays

We suck on the Now-or-Later of distraction to absorb taste
Only to wake up the morning after knowing the life we waste
It is in this constant drive for more that we find anxiety
As life robbers forced on us when what we need is simplicity

We need to slow down long enough to search for the starlight
And when we find it to focus on its guidance to get it right
Too much of what has happened in life are things not meant
But not paying attention to the lessons that the universe has sent

(c) May 20, 2022  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved