Obsolescence, nothing escapes your wicked ways

 

Obsolescence, nothing escapes your wicked ways    

An all-original poem by Sujay Rao Mandavilli

 

Obsolescence, you always creep in,

Intransigence is your sister twin,  

Neither showing your fangs, nor raising your wings,

Non-change and non-progress are your veritable offsprings,  

Neither making your presence felt,

Yet everything scourged and bent,

You make everything seem and appear antiquated,

You make everything only fit in due course to be discarded,

You make everything seem and appear out of date,

Many are ready to bite your wicked bait,  

You make everything seem and appear old-fashioned,

With progress, growth and vitesse effectively pinioned,

You make everything seem and appear no longer fit for general use,

Everything loses steam in due course as your icy venom is let loose,

Obsolescence you always sneak in stealthily,

Obsolescence you crawl in and creep in through the back door sneakily,

Informing no one of your whereabouts or its coordinates,

Until all endeavour from its dyed in the wool tradition aberrates,

Unprepared, unsuspecting and ill-equipped you will be,

Though the results will eventually be there for all to see,                 

Never leave yourself off guard,

Never let yourself off the hook,

Obsolescence will catch up with you by hook or by crook,

Always be on your alert,

Always be on your vigil,             

Even the wise and the erudite shall not be spared,

Truth be told and bared,

Only the savvy and the adaptable will,

Technology is alone not to blame,

Though it has a role to play, too, all the same,  

Attitude, dogma and ideology are largely to blame too,

With self-imposed limits to the freedom of inquiry,

The vicious noise of other peoples voices snuff out all forms of enquiry,

Ideology makes us blind, it makes us immune to veracity,

To the perils and pitfalls of reality,

So is your inability to renew yourself anew,

And play your game wisely too,

Nonchalance is also a major culprit,                                          

Even as man cries out hoarse from the pulpit,

Innovation is stifled, its benign hands quashed,

Creativity is made a mockery of, and in turn smashed,

Despondency is let loose again,

Rigidity reigns supreme,

With no cautionary aposeme,

Ignorance is rampant,

And proves to be a veritable accelerant,

We wallow in his senseless arrogant proclamations and pompous naivety,

Dyed in the wool approaches lend their weight and abnormity,

And prevent you from bringing yourself uptodate with reality,

Drawing down all forms of preposity,

Only after its heavy and death clad hand has laid,

And all hope for the march of progress has smeared,

You blame your parents and your grandparents,

But obsolescence destroys in its wicked turn, all hopes for assonance,

And you shall fall victim and fall prey too,

Sooner or later,

To the mighty and unwavering hand of obsolescence,

All will fall and will be doomed.