Homework August 2023 'The City Life'

[Terry]

It seems that this last month has been less than kind to some of us,
This was started from a hospital bed - on the mend now though.


The City Life
He’s been a Bushie all his life not used to daily city strife,
where anything that can go wrong is bound to happen all the time.
Out bush you woke to rising sun and carried on till things were done,
not bound by clock with rush and tear or social steps you have to climb.

But now confronted with this change his whole life he must rearrange,
and learn a language that’s so strange, he wonders has the world gone mad.
New phones are now a must it seems, to meet the status this life deems
appropriate, for modern life embracing every changing fad.

With gismo’s that confuse near all, he knows he’s heading for a fall,
not even knowing where to start now in this foreign world down here.
His new phone is a point in view not knowing what the hell to do,
to even use the flamen thing - perhaps he needs another beer.

You ask for help but there is none, yet most here reckon they’re a gun,
they rabbit on with strange big words now meaningless to blokes like him.
And even when the damn thing rings it’s likely just a scam it brings,
so wonders should he answer it – or chuck it in the sea to swim.

The internet is full of crooks, just waiting there to sink their hooks
here into anyone who’s fooled, by countless scams that do the rounds.
It’s now so easy to get caught, the whole damn scene is really fraught
with danger, and you wonder if the net should now be out of bounds.

Yet people walk with phone to ear and even chat with others near,
there is no privacy as heated words are often heard as well.
And there are words that make him blush heard daily in the city rush
of noisy pandemonium, that’s life here in this man-made hell.

There’s TV screens that scream at you with promises he doubts are true,
but people watch this rubbish every night when what they need is sleep.
And social media now rules, and treat us like a mob of fools
addicted to this latest fad – a stalking ground for every creep.

Of night’s he dreams of far-off hills and shearing sheds and creaking mills,
along with silence found out there compared with endless noise down here.
Then thoughts of what he’d left behind start playing now upon his mind,
especially that Jillaroo, with whom he’d sensed romance was near.

A month down here enough he felt, and rues again this hand he’d dealt,
his dreams about a city life, a fool’s illusion, nothing more.
He now admits he’d got it wrong about bright lights and drink and song,
he’s had a taste - but knows it’s time to go – and that’s for flam’en sure.

© T.E. Piggott

[Catherine Lee]

Ah, well done, Terry, I love this! There are some wonderful lines which are so relatable, such as: “With gismo’s that confuse near all, he knows he’s heading for a fall”, being just one example. As for asking for help, this is easier said than done with some of the confusing waffle you often get in reply, putting you off ever asking again! ...The myriad dangers and pitfalls of social media are well covered here and so true, as well as the “noisy pandemonium” of life in this world we’ve created and the way in which we are often treated like a “mob of fools”.... Small wonder the simpler life calls in dreams…I think it’s doing that for a lot of us of late. There is this urge to somehow try to escape all the craziness (although one day I suppose it will find us anywhere)... In the meantime, however, perhaps we all just need more of those beers you mention at the end of stanza 3!

[Terry]

Thanks Catherine

The whole tec scene is now fraught with risk isn't it, and yet we have become more and more dependent upon it.
and social media is right out of control, and it's now just a place where trolls lurk to pull down anyone they can.

We are supposed to live in an enlightened age!

Cheers

Terry

[Ron]

Loved it Terry,
I detect that you have drawn on a lot of true life experience with this one, and I can totally understand the old mate's dilemma!
To me, you have really nailed the flow in the rhyming pattern that you have used.
Glad to hear you are back on the mend mate, after your hospital visit.
Cheers
Ron.

[Terry]

Thanks Ron

It was one of those that you start of thinking a few stanza's will do,
but end up thinking what you have written, barely covers the subject.

Cheers

Terry

[Shelley Hansen]

Very well said, Terry! A succinct summing up of our modern world - when we all long for simpler times, yet are locked into the merry-go-round we find ourselves riding.

Hope you are continuing to recover. Take it easy.

Cheers
Shelley

[Maureen K Clifford]

Oh that is a pearler terry - well done. Typo on that last line you might want to fix. The battle with technology is very real as I am discovering to my cost now .... my tardiness at learning how to use my mobile phone is biting me on the bum big time.

All of we seniors try so very hard to keep up don't we - I do think companies could be a little more helpful than most of them are(n't)

Hope you are now well on the road to recovery and feeling much better

[Terry]

Thanks Shelley & Maureen

That simpler life you mention Shelley seems to be rapidly slipping below skyline.
It seems we're trapped here in the madness of this age.
Oh well I guess we still have the refuge found in our poetry.
here we can go to where inspiration, dreams and memories might care to take us.

Fixed that typo, thanks Maureen

Terry