Oso Para Vos

who would have thought it?

who would have thought,
that aldous huxley,
and the “conspiracy theorists”
from the past two decades
were correct when they predicted
digital dystopia yielding mass surveillance,
control and monitoring of all people?

who would have thought
that cash would one day
no longer be “king”,
but instead become outlawed
and replaced by
digital (and traceable)
transactions?

who would have thought
that health history, treatment
and records would one day would
be digitalised,
and thus subject to hacking by
those who do not have our
best interests at heart?

who would have thought
that vaccination ID-cards
could one day be required
for domestic and international
travel —
and this despite vaccination
officially being “mandatory”?

who would have have that
the conspiracy theorists of
the past couple of decades
who warned of “chipping”
were right; but that they just
did not understand that a
physical chip was unnecessary?

who would have thought
that just because you are
called “paranoid”, it does
not mean that you are
— in fact — not being
followed; or being
monitored remotely?

who would have thought
that just because you are
called a “conspiracy theorist”
it does not necessary follow
that everything in a so-called
conspiracy theory is false,
or fake news?

decades ago, it was predicted
by “conspiracy theorists” that
one day we would beg to be
chipped, vaccinated, controlled
and monitored — for our own good;
that we would one day exclaim:
“Chip me baby, chip me … good and hard!”

who would have thought
that the conspiracy theorists were right
when they warned that those who refused
to go along with the scheme would simply
have their chips turned off — relegating
them to a life of being homeless renegades
without access even to basic necessities?

now, who would have thought it?

millions did, and warned against it …
but few listened — until now.

Silence = Death.

(Poetry, photos and painting by Adam Donaldson Powell)

REVIEW BY DR. ISAGANI R. CRUZ, THE PHILIPPINES:

The Tunnel at the End of Time is a masterful symphony of languages, religions, cultures, and literary techniques, all journeying to one inevitable destination: the individual wrestling with self. Covering our most human to our most divine urges and activities, the poetic, science fictional, experimental, even cinematic book leads us through words to what is beyond or behind words: the inscrutable mystery of our own being or, more precisely since the book revels in Emptiness, our non-being. In the process of stripping away the several skins that we use to protect our inner selves and to keep us from exercising our freedom to live a full life, the book also comments on writing itself, turning itself inside out, so to speak, so that we are forced as readers to become the writers themselves, merging our selves with theirs without meaning to and without remembering the meaning that we wanted to find, finding ourselves apparently in the future but actually in the present, or even more precisely, in the past, as time stops for us. In the end, the future humans, aliens, and angels turn out to be really us today, as we find ourselves aliens within ourselves, alienated not from the world as lesser writers would have put it, but from ourselves, as only the truly alive realize, perhaps as only angels really know. For those less inclined towards philosophy, the book offers gripping suspense, continuous action, and provocative scenes; the narrative scaffolding, however, is there only to lead readers to deeper levels of reading. I recommend this book to everyone honest enough to admit that we do not know ourselves or that we are not just nothing, but perhaps even Nothingness itself. Have fun, but be warned!

– Isagani R. Cruz, Professor Emeritus, De La Salle University, Manila