East Meets West

I used to live in a world

of freshly squeezed laundry,

Himalayan pink salt on Atlantic salmon,

and thermostatic, triple jet showers.

But now I live in a world

of re-worn t-shirts, mouldy

Cheerios in chipped bowls, and

sputtering streams of cold water in a rectangular box.

I used to live in a world nothing, but having everything.

Where you could have anything you wanted,

you never went hungry, and the internet

never turned off.

But now I live in a world of everything,

but having nothing. Where eyesight

is a luxury, textbooks an impossibility,

and gluttony a distant memory.

I used to live in a world of fantasy,

where everyone had only one job,

overtime was not the expectation,

and education and housing a public

and expected right.

But now I live in a world of reality,

where accounts are fined for being empty,

clothes are mocked for having holes,

and education and housing are an insurmountable

mass of anxiety and debt.

I used to believe in sleep,

but now I believe in bills.

I used to believe in scholarships,

but now I believe in corruption.

I used to believe in universities,

as a universe of support and accessible education,

but now I believe in greed:

a monster

that sits and takes everything, even when its victim,

already has nothing.