Product of Her World

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{Authors' Note: You guys can speak for yourselves all you want, but women cannot live on sex alone. Here's another poem that's stuck in my mind since long ago...}


There she sits, leaning forward in her chair,
Holding her walkman in her hands,
Like a prayer book or a holy relic;
Her lips mutter the words of the songs,
Quietly singing under her breath,
As if the lyrics were mantra chants.
She is the product of her society,
But that phrase comes out a little too trite.
She is the product of her own world.

    She escapes with society's products:
    Escapes from all meaning,
    Escapes from the boring,
    Escapes from the everyday world,
    Into a realm of her own making.

She holds her walkman in her hands,
Like a prayerbook hooked into her ears;
Absorbing the modern medicine chants,
As she does not absorb her classes.
She is lost in this other world,
Sitting in her chair, dreaming;
Holding her walkman of modern-day psalms,
Product of her world.

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KOLKOREKOLKOREalmost 17 years ago
While you were numbed and destructed…

(A long comment)

How shall I put it succinctly? I loved your poem. And…in as much as I loved your poem I disliked your preface to it. Still, it was very productive for me, as it provoked a lot of thoughts and emotions. Had I looked on that achievement alone I would have said that you more than earned top points. <P>

Commenting on the preface though presented some questions for me. How should this type of comments be read? Are they part of the poem? There are many views on the subject. All I could conclude was that in reading it right where it’s put, and just as the poem is about to be read, it inevitably evoked intellectual /emotional reactions to it. Moreover, it’s most likely that it was intended by the poet to be evocative. What the preface creates is therefore something that should be taken into account when reading the poem. After all, the reader is the same person who reads both. We are not speaking of mere abstractions. <P>

Still, it is possible to discern different ‘locals’ in the mind when a poet writes a poem and when she writes a meta- comment. I respect this poet for her poem, and I feel, strange as it may sound, a sense of comradery with her plight (not said facetiously) as reflected by her preface and despite its content. We all live in a society which to different degrees could be inhospitable, both physically and socially. <P>

My main message to the author is that my reaction to her preface is not aimed at her per- se. I am convinced (as the poem proves), that her mind and more importantly - her heart, are in the right place. rather, my comments take the preface to the poem as a jumping point to hopefully raise people’s awareness to where IMO, we should be looking at in anger, rather than to the multiple smoke screens which are blown at us. One of them admittedly is suggested by the preface. I hope that the author keeps these words in mind. <P>

Because of the different scope of the comments on the preface (compared with my comments on the poem), I decided to separate between the two. The commentson the poem will follow. I can’t think yet of the need (or of a way) to have a third piece which would put the two together without rehashing what has already been said. <P>

Back to the preface. If you wish to elaborate and prove your point on a presumed dichotomy between young men and young women, and why in your mind they are pitted at each other, or as the tone of the comment suggests, even should be pitted at each other it would help me understand what as it stands sounds now, sounds like such a bogus statement, I’d feel embarrassed to pursue it further. Till then, we have what our eyes can see. Having read the poem, I was saddened to see you going there; yet another fresh mind going to the designated wasteland of the blindsided. Knowing or not, you too are the product of your/our time and your/our society. We may differ in how we respond to what “society” offers us as its preferred standard interpretation. <P>

Have you ever asked who stands to gain –in fact who keeps gaining ground, while debates about – the superiority/ inferiority of one sex over the next (how silly can we get!) are going on? Let me introduce some obvios winners. We have our good friends all around us – executive directors of mega corporations – not least among them the media moguls; they are so good at that -offering the illusion of endless variety in the form of numerous media outlets – all just to make us happy. You can choose your niche, but between the covers they are the same. They are as independent today as the Soviet era “Pravda” used to be, only in somewhat less blatant way (open your mouth independently and you’ll never see our commercials again on your fancy chromo pages). Pick your choice of your favorite ‘enemy from within’ (or across the border) to hate; your own discretionary ‘pet hate’ enemy niche, just like your preferred niche media outlet. They package their offering in simple quick one liners. Their most attractive feature: no messy complications. Stick to simple. Simplicity and simplifications are the mantra. Haven’t you noticed you are being trained yet? Nothing is said, the art is in the suggestion. Their hired communication experts know the most effective ways to manipulate our minds. Their spoke persons would probably recoil from the language. They would probably come up with something fancier like: ‘restructuring our reading habits’. The outlets only suggest: think of knowledge as if it’s food. Easy to digest is good for you, and that’s what your mind needs as well, and that’s why you like it as much. Plus, who has the time any more to read lengthy detailed informative articles, when more and more have to work longer and longer hours to earn the same buying power or less. They offer plenty of magazines for women which delicatly suggest hating men (if that’s too harsh a word, use: blame; target; fix; control; manage), and they offer plenty of magazines for man which only suggest – you guessed, women to hate (same language alternatives as with the women magazines). The common denominator? The owners are one and the same!

It’s so easy therefore to fall into one of those shiny mental wastelands. <P>

Knowing or not, you are the product of your world too; you have made your choice of your 'niche enemy from within'. It may sound harsh and hard but it’s said with equal parts of sadness and compassion. To be on the receiving end of the constant manipulations and the ever growing sophistication and subtlety of the smoke screens thrown at us is not something anyone chooses. Yet, some antidotes are sorely needed. <P>

Back to the smoke screens, they are produced to deflect and destruct any potential critic who may otherwise get busy with true investigative journalism. Who knows? We might learn about real corruption, or of a real dirty deal or get too close to where regular ongoing decisions on our lives are being made. So keep them busy elsewhere. But mostly, they are made to numb our minds. They are produced and maintained by the best experts that money can buy; their job is to send us in all directions - as long as we stay away from corporate headquarters. There, both men and women, old and young; black and white (and Asian and Hispanic too), all loyal executives (but still mostly white men – old habits do die hard) continue with their multi year plans. Those include the continued enslavement (oops, I mean – labor exporting in the form of sweat shops) for children and women and yes –also men in “free countries” like China and other free havens for corrupt/authoritarian regimes (mostly in Asia and Africa). Those countries are free all right. Free of human rights, free of human dignity, free of ‘over burdening’ codes of health and safety. And the profit margins, that’s the real candy - the sky is the limit! Once we were told, it was supposed to free and promote those societies, and even improve our lives in America. Unfortunately, we were lied to. Don’t look for influx of information on the implementation of the free trade agreements; like who specifically lost and who specifically won. You won’t find it in the ‘niche enemy from within’ media outlets. In the mean time, more and more people –BOTH men women and children work more and more for less and less. So much for time for family time for young people – both males and females. So much for time for being involved in schools and in the community. Guess what, the executives really love to hear dumbed down discussions going on, like how young women’s spirituality is a world apart from that of young men, whose spirituality is in doubt all together. Who knows, someone could be getting a bonus! Operation blindsiding works! They just love seeing the glazing eyes of readers when they accidentally touch the edge of a trail which seems too complex, even as it might be one which could lead to some people who might bear some real culpability for the misery of false and short handed education for example. Sleep tight they would whisper, or if you can’t, just play, or if you wish – fight call it anyway you like, focusing on whites against blacks against women against men against immigrants (you may add your pet enemy of choice). As long as you stay away from our remote production plants across the sea or across the border; and for god’s sake, stay away from our closed plants here in this country, so that you won’t be able to ask around those sites about the torched land we have left behind. What was that you were saying about young men and sex? <P>

They don’t wish for you to talk about what money they give and to whom and what legislation they’d like to see about the air you breadth; the water you drink; the food you eat; the drugs you consume when you fall ill. And for heavens sake, they really don’t like it when anyone talks about the money you won’t have if you or one of your family should stay away from work due to a disabling condition. Of course don’t talk about the pension you won’t have when you retire. But they sure wish for us to let them take care of our needs while we focus on our discretionary pet hate niche. I‘m pretty sure though that they would have loved to talk about how much they love this one: ‘who’s better: girls or boys?’. <P>

The poem itself allowed me to shift gears and for a moment or two even forget the preface. Still I believe that for some, there could be a serious loss of credibility (just contemplate the statement of men’s lesser or worse – lack of need for additional dimensions beyond sex) which may not be forgotten in the process of the reading. It’s a shame for the sake of the poem

AnonymousAnonymousalmost 17 years ago
Ignorance is bliss

Quite the visionary.

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