Tea By the Lake

SUNDAY 160

http://petzoldspracticalprose.blogspot.com/2009/06/sunday-160.html

The idea is to use 160 characters only, including spaces.

TEA BY THE LAKE

The inside out; the outside in.

Calm water, versus sociable din.

Grey skies, grey lake, wild cries of birds;

Tea-spoon clatter and frivolous words.

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MARIONETTES

We're all of us marionettes,

Pulled this way and that by the strings,

We think that we're free but we're not,

We're a jumble of intricate springs.

From the moment we're born we enroll

In classes called 'How to behave'.

Free spirits we may try to be

But each one is a virtual slave.

The language we speak isn't ours,

It's the language made up by 'the others',

The ancestors down through the years,

All posing as Fathers and Mothers.

The beliefs we proclaim aren't our own;

They haven't just grown in our heads.

And when we stride out feeling strong

We're treading where everyone treads.

The songs that we sing aren't our own.

We're programmed to like what we must.

And any original thought

Leaves us guiltily vague and nonplussed.

If no-one has thought 'that' before

Then surely the thought must be dumb!

For it's only through 'clever one's' thoughts

That anything special can come.

So relax! Just get up on your toes

And dance your absurd pirouette!

Just 'go with the flow.' Keep in mind

You're only a Marionette.
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