The Triumph Of Mediocrity Poem by Raymond Farrell

Today
As I sit
Under the locust tree
The last day
In the first week
Of May 2015 is here
A week that has seen two boxers
Attempt to beat each other's brains out
In what some hyped as the bout of the century
The winner collected a meager $100 million
And in New York Van Gogh's painting
The Allee of Alyscamps
Fetched a record $ 66.3 million
Meanwhile the gap between the rich
And everyone else widens
The middle class is slowly disappearing
The two big events of the week
Simply serve to underline
The state of Western culture today
We desperately need statesmen
But instead we have partisan politicians
We need witty and intelligent entertainment
But all we are presented with is crass vulgarity
We need great art and literature
But instead we have Harry Potter
First the book, then the movie
And finally, a billionaire authoress
Who couldn't write great literature
If her life depended on it
We have stacks of paper currency
Being printed daily
But no real money
And a ballooning debt
To bequeath to our grandchildren
The education system teaches people
What to think
Not how to think
We no longer can agree
On a set of moral values
So instead we have choices
Relative, subjective and flexible enough
To accomodate most deviant proclivities
With this imbalance between rights and responsibilities
It is no surprise that mediocrity has triumphed.