The Future Is Already Upon Us Poem by DM W

The digital architects are
Busy mapping the near future
Of garishly coloured conurbations:
Teeming with buildings and boulevards;
Blending neon, glass and concrete
In increasingly exotic, innovative ways.
Gleaming advertisements now abound
And encode us in every street & home.

Endless, pointless entertainments
Now distract us from harsh reality.
And malcontents do not escape
The cold steel eyes of surveillance.
The aim is neat, cosy, customised living
As soft and glossy as magazines.
There are now satellite dish societies
Of perfect compliance without creed;
With a surplus of gadgets from which
We can choose and mark our social status.
It seems the old, serious quaint world
Is gradually being eroded.
Our very notion of space
Is challenged by the virtual.
Nuclear families frozen in time
Still cling to secure, time honoured symbols
Of precious Sunday Roast & Sabbath.
But things are changing at lightning speed
In this rampant, best buy Babylon:
Where the surface is always shifting
There are already 24 hour
Shining, drive thru, fast food establishments
In every major city; in every minor town.
Crudely served cheap crap has replaced culinary delights.

Deluxe casinos and shopping malls
Will soon eclipse grey, dusty churches;
Whose relevance ceased long ago.
And rows and rows of wrecked, junk den
Terraced houses will be demolished;
Along with creaking, archaic town halls
Where the public once communed
To articulate their concerns.
Teams of educated hypnotists
Are always at hand to lull us. Although they are
Well trained to gently extinguish
All of our burning questions, I'm still perplexed.
Does the modern world really have to resemble
A cool, simulated Las Vega