Michael Batchelor's Blog, page 9

Value

When I was a young boy
About 6
I would do chores
Around the house
To earn a $2 coin
I never did the chores well
But Mum always gave me the coin
And once a week
I'd walk with her
Coin in pocket
To the local corner shop
Where they'd sell lolly bags
Small for $1
Large for $2
I always got the large bag
And ate it all
On the way home
Feeling like Charlie
In his chocolate factory

And now that I'm an adult
Over 30
And I spend all week
Working for many gold coins
I find that when
I go to
The supermarket
And use one
To get a chocolate bar
It never tastes
Or feels as good
As those lolly bags
Of my youth

I guess I've become
Spoilt

Ideas

The older I get
The more I realise
That unlearning old
Bad ideas
Is more important
That learning new
Good ones

Take One Before Bed

Believing in an afterlife
Is a spiritual sedative
I use
To fall asleep
When the existential dread
Keeps me awake

And whether it’s right
Or not
I don’t care
Because there’s no right and wrong
When it comes to
The unproven

Spiritual Treatment

We tell sick children
In hospital beds
That there’s a god
And heaven
And that they’ll be saved
Whether we believe it
Or not
As we should
And yet when you’re an adult
And healthy
You don’t get the same
Treatment
Why?
Just because there are decades
Separating them
From the hospital bed

As if a bit of time
Makes the difference
Between needing comfort
And not

Validation

People in the past
Have made fun of me
For going to bed early
For not drinking a lot
For leaving the party early
For paying bills weeks
Before they're due
For not liking the clubs
For not being like them
And I've always thought it was strange
That some practices
Are considered superior
To another
When in actuality
It's all the same
And people just want
To validate themselves
By invalidating you

Hedonism

Hedonism
Is an ugly disease
You binge and binge on
Sex
Alcohol
Sugar
Gambling
Whatever
And after a while
Your soul can’t take it
Any longer
And it vomits
Over and over
Until you blackout
And wake up
The next day with
A spiritual hangover
That’s also called
Regret

Reading

I'm convinced
That everyone's a reader
It's just that
Some people haven't
Found the right book
Yet

Anti-Intellectualism

When I was in school
You’d get ridiculed
For going to the library
You’d get called a ‘nerd’ or a ‘geek’
And you were made to feel bad
For wanting to learn something
Or go on an adventure
Without moving
And as I’ve gotten older
I’ve noticed that
Those same people
The ones who flood
The sports stadiums
And ignore the libraries
Haven’t learned their lesson
And they still look at reading
As nerdish
As geeky
And, sadly of all,
As optional

Criticising The Critic

I have a theory
That critics
Are failed artists
And they’re so unhappy
About their failure
They made a plan
And that plan
Was to become a critic
So that they could then
Get paid to criticise
Those they could not become
And they would then
Believe that their criticism
Was a form of art
When in fact
It was a form
Of pettiness
That’s trying to turn
The subjective
Into the objective

Productivity

The species has been working
So hard
For so long
And yet
What’s our reward?
Melting icebergs
The Great Pacific garbage patch
Endless wars over made-up identities
Sensationalist journalism
Social media

Maybe we should be
Working less