◂◂ Black Mirror ▸▸

  the mirror resides within a darkened frame

   gleaming, exact, without preconceptions

      awash with leaden memory stains

   mercurial bases from other dimensions

  four-cornered in steel, reflecting hard truths

     faces refracted in shimmering prisms

        in you I see me, in me I see you

      glass surfaces aglow with solipsism

    there’s more to light than meets the eye

       star-fields interlacing the gloom

     our sanity wavers in cold xenon light

  we yearn to escape the windowless room

                                 §

                     Ω Earth-Bound Ω 

      a half-held truth gleams brighter than that

which halts; earth-bound, intransigent and resolute 

             in narcissism it seems we lack

        the fortitude to pursue objective truth

       indulging in infinite material pleasures

        data transfer at instantaneous rates

   presented with opportunities beyond measure

       yet human psychology seals our fates

       with little to gain in the office, the clinic

           drowning in a bureaucratic sea

   turning to opiates and memes that mimic 

        hoping that these will set us free 

  a Brave New World without room for hate

          or even a shared cup of tea

     denial of the emotions integral to us

          paves the path to insurgency

                                ♠