Do not think, just follow the marked path

by Jonathan Becedas

Asphalt arteries
oxygenating the organs of capitalism,
full of gasoline cells
replicating their day by day,
with every breath,
exhaling mist and disease,
generating wealth ⏤for others⏤,
moving the inexorable wheel
of empty minutes without flavour.

There I am too …
programmed to kill
my time, my existence:
fuel of a machine
controlled by others.
Advertising on the speakers,
advertising on the roadside signs
advertising in other gasoline cells:
do not think, just follow the marked path:
everything is forbidden,
mandatory,
full of danger.

Next to the fence of the rest of the cattle
my card turns on
the little light that opens the door
to my cell,
like every single day…
Twelve hours later it will open,
after I've earned my breath.

Before, during and after,
the others tell me with their empty eyes:
do not think, just follow the marked path
because it is the right one;
others already think instead of you;
others already live instead of you.