Authored: April 6, 2017

I read this in someone's file
He had been dismissed and rather than saying 'dismissed'
The exit paper said "No Longer Utilised"
I read it and reread it and comprehended the banality of it
Imagine being reduced to an item, a tool, an afterthought.

I wonder if this person was now the same person
I had seen sleeping underneath the pylons of this bridge
In this picture, under a late summer sky
The stars are silent, but human isn't.

Today after work I returned to this bridge
Now empty
Along Salt Pan Creek
I saw used bottles
The refuse of a person or persons living rough
There are many in our society
That no longer are utilised
In different shapes and forms.

I am a cog in this cruel machine
I am no longer utilised by love
I am no longer utilising the abuser
Is this the first step to becoming a forgotten one?

I looked out over the bridge and heard the incessant noise
Of passing traffic on the Motorway
Looking upon dirty muddy water.

I took out my light and alighted the flame
It was transcendent in the breeze
A temporal form.

No Longer Utilised
Under the bridge this person will return
Until he does not awake again
Under the uncaring malevolence
That we call modernity.

I told a work colleague that if I die
Let it be known on my gravestone
"No Longer Utilised"
Sooner or later there will be enough cogs that will stop functioning
And the system will start to fail
And this bridge will stand forth for many decades more
As time passes and the bones age
As the next generations march on by
Maybe they will do much better....