Soap

A poem from 2017

Are you serious?

Is this normal behaviour?

Is this every street but mine?

Skullduggery at every turn?

Carousels of lust?

A misery-go-round of broken lives?

My life is so sheltered

You have us eating out of the palm of your hand

You make us hate the villain

You show us their sensitive side

And suddenly we must love them

You have us screaming “NO!” at the TV

We shout out “don’t do it!”

As if we had control

You build up hopes for what does not exist

All the time it is your whim that rules

You are messing with our minds

You are primetime gods

You lecture us

You ostracise us

Guardians of Cain and Abel

You keep us coming back for more

Dangling us over the cliff edge

But you are so lazy

You rerun the same stories with different characters

You are not as omniscient as you like to think

I am wise to your games

I refuse to let you control my emotions

I refuse to let you decide my morals

I have better ways of wasting my time

I am not a viewing figure, I am a free man

And I have broken free from you