Screens

Screens are all around me
in front of my very eyes.
My life is full of see­ing them
and it makes me want to cry

I’m typ­ing this lit­tle dit­ty
on the screen in front of me
and it makes me real­ly won­der
how life would be if all screen free

I switch on my lit­tle microwave
there is anoth­er one on there
and then I pick my cell­phone up,
the one on there is a small square

There is a tiny one on my cam­era
and on my bread mak­er as well.
To say noth­ing of all the radios
and the alarm clock when it yells.

The kids turn on the tele­vi­sion
and stare blankly at the screen
then they play their twitch­es
as sur­re­al as the weird­est dream

At the air­port depar­ture ter­mi­nal
and in the taxi out of town.
They tell me what to do and when
and where to plant my frown

There are one’s to adjust the tem­per­a­ture
and oth­ers to keep out the sun.
I bet there’s one on my fridge door
Just to make my life more fun

I apply for a job posi­tion
they are screen­ing all the appli­cants
I go to get an x‑ray
this ones angled on a slant

In the insur­ance bro­kers office
there are cubi­cles all round
to keep the work­ers pri­va­cy
screened from oth­er noisy sounds

There are screens to keep the bugs out
and to keep the sun off of the car.
There are ones that tell you where you are
and just when you’ve gone to far.

It used to be just in the cin­e­ma
where we would go to get a dose
and stare off like a zom­bie
squint­ing to bring words up real close

Now my eyes are see­ing rec­tan­gles
but I know its from the screen
on the optic glass­es that I wear
which allow it to be “ob”seen

Words and num­bers flash at me
they are every­where I look
screens reg­u­late my lifestyle
once upon a time it was a book

But the biggest screen of them all
is a hid­den one indeed
it’s the one that peo­ple hide behind
that they real­ly seem to need

I broke my screen long ago
what you see is what you get.
The per­son deep inside of me
is the same per­son you just met