Gamekeeper Thumbs

Fire Star this
Five Star that
fast-lane reward
for guilt's shot-glass rage

Somewhere
all of the time
stands stagnant ponds
made reflective
with chemically negotiated purity
administered by beholden minions
working up from
Zero Star
One Star
Two Star
always dreaming the Stars
fantasy's galaxy of laughing gas

For

Bonus checks
of any currency
like mirage awakenings
appease the moment
only to dissolve the vision
back to drifting sands
from whence it came
truth's residual made obvious
for some

So

What of so-called "learned" advantage
delivering the creators
of gamekeeper thumbs?

Are they you?

Are they me?

Is anyone above
innate impatience
driving envy for imaginings
into unsafe boundaries
where recklessness and speed
vie as the norm?

Who can you ask?

For who finds not their conscience grappling
with either Futures 101
or the temptation
of fickledom's temperate wisdom?

Yes

Lest we forget

Rodeo Drive bathes in light
purchased by ether's emptiness
awaiting yet another generation's blindness
swathed in the mind's rose-colored glasses

'Tis the season
Black Friday is here
Insanity cracks its knuckles
as reality's jester
with thumbs still his own
checks his eye shadow
and moves on