Power Structures

My bedroom has only one electrical socket And so that single powerpoint has, Via a complex tangle of extension leads, To ower the following devices: Desktop computer, my beloved stereo, VCR, television, aerial booster, Freeview digital box, bedside clock radio And reading lamp. Even with the extension leads, There is nowhere to plug in the DVD player. And so all this power comes from a single source, Radiating through the room, spreading forth its gaze In many directions, facilitating many activities. I am not particularly proud of this Litany of consumer electronics, But they exist. I cannot help living in a rich country Where consumer goods are plentiful, and cheap. This could, of course, all be read Metaphorically, my lifeforce emanating from One fixed point, God perhaps, like Eliot’s Still point in a turning world. Or just Some boring crap I came up with one dark afternoon When I allowed my mind to wander from the task at hand.