Horse 1766 - Three Sonnets

1.
Ode to iOS and Silverlight

Oh what on earth is going on today?
I see the masses, sitting on the trains;
And how I wish they'd all just go away,
To leave me here alone inside my brain.

I see them all a-tapping on their phone,
They're staring down and most of them look sad,
Connected and yet how so all alone,
So busy and distractedly, so mad.

Yet maybe in this world there is some hope,
A place of solace and of calm respite.
Removed from the banal kaleidoscope,
Of saccharin and seven inch back light.

A place to sleep; a place to run and hide;
Forgotten place, we used to call "outside".

2.
A Failed Oil Change In the Rain

The rain it dripped upon my face that day,
Across my brow and in my eyes it ran,
The rain it seemd would never go away,
Betwixt with oil; into the drainage pan.

But oh the sump, you see, it would not budge,
Not even by the levered force of men.
The seal had cracked; alas I drew a sludge:
"Apprentices with rattle guns again!"

Cold and defeated in the rain I lay,
Annoyed that I could not complete my task,
Incompetence arrived and came to stay,
My indignation was no simple mask.

Mechanics shops, why are you such a bore?
A scheme to take my car to you once more?

3.
$6.66 Fare Deducted

On bus and train, round Sydney on Opal,
I didn't think that it was very fair,
My credit draining really was quite foul,
When beeping bandits stole away my fare.

Hist; hark! The happy bandits make a fuss,
Declare your fare - they always seem to know,
When getting on or off the train or bus,
They should have come at least ten years ago.

And now they know where all of us have been,
The sheep within a large surveillance state,
It's not like all of this was that unseen,
Compliant masses all just think it's "great".

Is Opal Card a beast? I cannot tell.
Or just a step along the road to hell?