Art in Our Times
Piss poor excuse for a joke,
All the un-ironic irony in real life.
I have always said it,
Life is a parody of the self,
We live in Chaplin’s Modern Times,
We are the machines,
And the proles.
We are wheels,
Turning and obedient to the driver,
Circle after circle,
Loop after loop.
Never changing,
Always moving,
Who are we, you, I?
Identity in these times,
Matches no other,
Identity in the past,
Must be laid to rest.
People are tired of cliches,
They need new ones,
New tropes,
New motifs,
New characters.
We,
The artists,
The writers,
The workers!
We must create something new.
We must not merely express our times,
We must change them.
What are the times we live in?
What will our era be called?
What can one do?
to help,
to change,
to move forward?
What can one do to stop the delay?
So that art,
and liberty,
can save us all.
James J Jackson 