EVERYTHING IS INTERESTING

...so andy p's white badge says
and it is the most meaningful thing i have seen or heard
since reuniting with this disunited kingdom
or is it a queendom?
interesting how i can cadge
a fully-functioning fifteen-speed bike for free
instead of paying 150 squid for it
interesting how by rejecting the alienating metal box
i gain an immediate camaraderie with two souls i have never met
interesting how the roadsides of south birmingham
are strewn with chestnut-coloured conkers
freshly hatched from their spiky green cases
uncollected by the children of the twenty-first century
who pass them by oblivious to their perfectly formed beauty
children trapped inside their metal boxes
or at home
staring at their bedroom goggle boxes
or tapping furiously at their sorry playstations
interesting how much more you notice
on escaping the mechanical four-wheeled prison
how it is possible to stop and dwell
on an impossibly beautiful inkblot dusk sky
with its exploding orange smudge
how you can guage
the gradient of the hill
the smooth or bumpy surface of the road
unprotected by combustion engine and suspension
which filter out such 'inconveniences'
free to face the reality of the lie of the land
and required to deal with it
to make small adjustments
to control the breathing
to pedal a little harder
i look around in amazement
i find myself among a society of spoilt sloths
who find it a chore to walk ten minutes to catch a bus
who complain at the merest hint of drizzle
who have become so disengaged from what nature there is left
that they are almost totally oblivious to it
unless it is packaged up
in convenient consumable bite-sized chunks
the national parks
the country estates
the botanical gardens
like so many trays of meat
or boxes of frozen battered plaice
tossed into a supermarket trolley
even the parks are empty
broad expanses of lush green grass and whispering trees
and hardly a soul to be seen
no matter the time of day
i could go on
but my thirty minutes will soon be up
oh england
my heart bleeds for your lost soul
if only i could help you to regain it
when in 1993 blur said that modern life is rubbish
they were referring to the usa
but they could have been talking about somewhere closer to home