The Temperature of Obedience

By Najmus Saqib

‘All’ is a well where nothing dwells,

A hollow silence, where echoed laughter fails.

An Invisible Man, in whom anguish dwells—

Faint ripples of calm shimmer through my hells.

Here runs the program, a script of despair,

Hollow effigies, completely unaware.

Inked within The Idiot with demonic ink,

My soul is sketched in a bottomless sink.

Pushed over the edge and fallen from the brink,

Drunk from the drink—“the mediocrity kink”!

A host of locusts, chewing the air,

Player Piano enacted with a vacant stare.

1984, and social pressure—

Mind so spun and fallen through the fissure.

You’re on The Trial—your own punisher;

Fahrenheit 451 is the approved temperature!

A bedlam of philistines, diluted in reason,

Velleity and inaction, etched on their screens.

The purpose you’re seeking—a beautiful lie,

Protecting your boundaries—Catcher in the Rye.

Never Let Me Go and soar the sky—

Steppenwolf unleashed, The Stranger left to die.

Loaded with poison, lacking in care,

Lord of the Flies—a total nightmare!

By Najmus Saqib