Shiny Obsolete Silver Objects

We are distracted magpies made of skin and metal
slowly building our own prisons brick by brick.

Absorbed inside the world of a small black case,
that wields our knowledge and power.
We fly between truth and lie

A bird without a final destination
our calling for the silver that detracts us
as the lighting glint in a city is more powerful
than the empathy inside our being;

We collect shiny obsolete silver objects
replacing them every other year
Our behaviour has always been engineered

our desensitised response to any blood soaked image
is to buy even more useless shiny goods
We are distracted magpies made of skin and metal,
slowly building our own prisons brick by brick.

By Matt Duggan

Biography:

My work has appeared in The Journal, Osiris, The Dawntreader, Prole, Ink, Sweat, and Tears, Algebra of Owls, The Seventh Quarry. My first full collection Dystopia 38.10 (erbacce-press) won the erbacce prize for poetry in 2015 and in 2016 I won the Into the Void Poetry Prize with my poem Elegy for Magdalene.