Aurea Mediocritas

"You will walk

                      on the sidewalk. You will

place refuse in approved containers

            to be picked up at

                        the appointed time. You

will close doors            behind you,       turn off lights.

            You will sleep—eight hours, precisely—

                        dress within the confines of

acceptable taste and drive the speed limit

            and carry exact change.

You will earn diligently        yet modestly

            to provide for your dependents.       You will

                        purchase consumables

                                    at approved outlets

during posted hours of operation. Your respiration

            and metabolic processes will fall

within established norms. There is no standard

                        deviation.

                                    It is for your own good,

you among millions.

You will conform.

                                    You will not

skip meals,

skip steps,

skip lines. You will not skip.

                        You will not waste resources unless directed

or convenient. You will not read

            what you scrawl in the small hours

except to yourself— by yourself—

            in subdued lighting that casts no dramatic shadows.

You will not

                        listen to what rumbles outside,

                                    and if there are

shouts arcing through the grid, the city's synapses,

you will not hear them,

                                    or you will not notice. 

Pay no attention to what isn't televised.

            You will not support

what threatens security

            and abundance in the life which

you have been

taught to know

                        so long. You will protect

                        your

material wellbeing. You will save your voice

for when it is asked of you.

                      You will not indulge

in difficult colors or savor food or flesh

                        longer than required.

                                    You will not

sit up at night thinking

                                    about asterisms or

the cold or debris from cosmic collisions

spiraling toward the sun

over long centuries. You will wait, always wait, for it all 

to get better. And it will—

            it is. Getting better. 

So much better all the time."

Para a Inês