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Power Structures (Free verse) by Nicholas Jones
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 Eliotâs
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.
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