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Poem:  Ode to The OP/ED Writer

Glen Hameroff OpEdNews.com

Ritalin Rock

 

by Lawrence Klein, Montreal Canada

This is not addiction, this is the plague.
Heroin? Crack cocaine? Let us save
our sons and daughters from this scourge,
Quick - an emetic - as we purge
our society of addiction. We worship freedom,
except if there's a prescription.

Pretty Dumb and deaf - how can we be
to the most vulnerable in society.
Our children are prescribed - Vitamin R,
That's Ritalin, 'cuz they fidget by far
too much. Here swallow the new time release - Concerta
It will smooth out your day - and keep you alert, ahhhh
but at what cost? Well McNeil just paid... several billion,
to sell it to you, so you'll pay a zillion.
___________________
Sit Up Straight! Pay Attention! Don’t Fidget!

Focus. Concentrate. Take your meds, and get with it.

You can swallow your pills, they say no fear.

Or use Neurofeedback - get your brain PERMANENTLY in gear.

___________________

We used to read books, watch sunsets in the park.

Now MTV, PC’s and MP-3’s bark

out rap music that says we should be chilin’,

But what is the secret, My body is willing,

But my mind is on autopilot, up hi or down low,

Where’s the controls, I really want to Know.

A pill just ain’t the answer on how to attend

To my work. And I can no longer pretend

There’s nothing wrong; as I re-read the last page,

For the fifth time. I have no gauge

To adjust my attention. They say I’m ADD.

But I know when I’m creative and want to be free

To control my brain, with my own EEG

BIOFEEDBACK is going to set me FREE.

____________________________

Sit Up Straight! Pay Attention! Don’t Fidget!

Focus. Concentrate. Take your meds, and get with it.

You can swallow your pills, they say no fear.

Or use Neurofeedback - get your brain PERMANENTLY in gear

 

Copyright Lawrence Klein 2003

www.thoughttechnology.com

Myth

  Bob Lupo

 

We strove—

struggled they’d say in history books

(written by the winners as all books are)

& it was some of that,

names curled to be correct,

religions sniffed as if suspect

faces screened to weed away incompetents.

 

And gave our children and theirs

self-served truths, storied & stiff,

paved the Avenue in $$$$ signs,

forgotten the trauma & sweat,

tears & blood & smoked words—

the need to fight,

denying rights to others as if

the first on shore & in the voting halls

were better born.

 

We seized the prize for us & ours,

buds in sunny May guided our way,

somewhere between the struggle and the prize

others came in/locked doors tremble

when freedom’s wind blows in.

 

Things went awry,

earth’s not heaven

no matter the nymph’s sigh.

We think ourselves

pure as egrets sipping Seas

in salty mists,

wild roses on wind-blown Points,

memories yeah—they lie.

 

We settle now for flat screen TV,

push a button

look & listen

myths seep via words

pictures & undulations—

sway to the hallucination,

we’re set for the next history lesson.

 

                                                                        Bob Lupo