Adulteration Agony

I'm running my tongue over butter-

It tastes of synthetic oil.

The eggs have wrinkled yolks,

as if someone drained

the richness from their gold,

thinned their purity.

This isn't new.

There were plastic grains 

in my rice and for days,

a faint taste of metal

has clung to my spices.

Don’t get me started on the milk-

blue-white water

pressed from medicated udders.

Sacred things, sacred no more.

Syrup laced apples 

Malachite injected veggies 

They’ve adulterated it all

like there’s no tomorrow.

Even my tea leaves

conceal wood shavings.

My sugar too

is half microscopic stone.

The morning cup no longer invigorates 

it poisons the blood

just a little more.

My car has stomach cancer 

from corrosive petrol

My belly has been groaning

with something ominous too.

I gritted my teeth and went on.

But now, they've begun

adulterating poetry as well

and that is where I must draw the line.

The flesh can bear 

the blitz, the siege 

But the soul recoils against the insult.

I must resist the toxins

swimming in my gut,

my veins, my brain

from reaching the sanctum of me,

my soul-

The last bit of me that 

still feels like me.

There must be stricter laws

harsher penalties 

firmer censure 

against such adulteration.

If not, then asylum in a place 

unspoiled by this rot.

Author's Note

Sorry for the rough edges. This piece needs further editing.

Reviews

[FlatDaddy]

NO NO NO! Don't touch it, Divya, this is perfect as it is!
This is such a powerful piece, written in short, sweet words anyone can understand, maybe even those whose only language is "Penguin,"
This is so strong, so right, and reaches for the throat.
"The flesh can bear
"the blitz, the siege
"But the soul recoils against the insult."
Outstanding. You are saying what every poet here feels, and doing so better than all of us.
Thank you so much, and keep it up. I have, unfortunately, missed most of your work while attending to other things. But I swear I will do so no more. Bravo!

[DIVYA]

Thank you FlatDaddy! That's such a great review, it made my day!

[FlatDaddy]

I am so glad. I just came through the door. Gotta catch up on some other business, then I plan to read more of your work.

[Emunah June.]

If this is your "rough edges", then I can only imagine what refinement would look like! I am utterly blown away by the comparisons you've chosen to implement. Its so true -- most of our food can no longer even be considered "food" -- its all placeholders with flavoring that is, unfortunately, also tainted and spoiled. The world around us is so synthetic in design that things such as purity don't feel like they exist anymore.

I love that you choose to defend poetry so vigorously. I hope all of us carry the same sword and shield, and raise every banner necessary to protect our chosen art form. You do such a beautiful job not only encapsulating what I am sure most of us feel, but making it easy to follow along, so its gentle in one sitting. A real feast for the mind, and a welcome one at that. Your page was recommended to me by a friend, and let me tell you, it has been the absolute highlight of my day to partake in such a linguistic buffet. Thank you for this.

[DIVYA]

Thank you so much for such appreciation. Reading your review made me feel very rewarded for my efforts. I'm humbled and inspired. Your words will be cherished always.

[Betty Hermelee]

Indeed it’s enough my friend to have adulterated food and drink that’s been tampered with too many times; but when it comes to poetry, it must remain true and creative and not ruined by AI or any other means… toxins that hurt the soul; and as such should not be in realm of poetry
Thank you Divya for sharing this.
Warmly B😊🌷

[DIVYA]

Yes Betty, because the spirit hurts more than the flesh. I've often been quite ill from messed up food but nothing deflated my spirit worse than AI poems. Thank you so much for understanding, my dear friend. ❤️💐

[Betty Hermelee]

of course and i agree with you…. we must stop this!
and big smiles for you😊😊

[Dennis Wolf]

Well, not that I'd endorse the idea of encouraging even the physical taint... But yes, attempting to stifle, stiffen and harden that which by its nature was meant to be fluid, ever-changing, light and pliant... And then expecting some marvelous results apart from its death is foolish.

I view all forms of art as expressions of the spirit, which is just as necessary as the physical body, in fact, I more and more believe that one implies the other and that one would not initially come to exist without the other... And by spirit, I don't mean Casper or the other mythic beings, but the very subtle but ever present and indeed omnipresent thing, of which, as of "late" we perceive but fractions, fragments that seem convenient for whatever it is we intend or desire... Well, there I go again, grumbling.. 😂😂😂 Sorry about that

[DIVYA]

Your reviews are always treasured. Art is spirit, indeed. Thank you so much. 🤗 🍻

[DIVYA]

Thank you so much Dennis. A visit from you is always appreciated. Don't be sorry. Its called engagement with the piece and its a compliment to the writer. Cheers. :)

[DIVYA]

Thank you so much Dennis. A visit from you is always appreciated. Don't be sorry. Its called engagement with the piece and its a compliment to the writer. Cheers. :)

[DIVYA]

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this piece, Dennis. I really appreciate the in-depth review.

[Dennis Wolf]

No thanks necessary. As I might have said earlier, Ai is not a direct threat to writers, because Ai is ignorant of many things that makes good writing. Its idea of "showing" is limited to specific verbs and specific details and nothing more, but I think you'll agree that how characters do something, what they do and why they do it is also "showing" in many ways perhaps even more important than phobia of adjectives and adverbs.... And I don't follow that trend, because I don't believe in spoonfeeding readers every minute detail. Adjectives and adverbs are there to add the background details without slowing the pace, in that sense, use them and use them well. Let the reader imagine the scene and describe only the important parts more specifically.

We often forget that readers are half the equation. If they lack the faculties to engage with something, then it's not on you.
Cheers.

Ai is a threat only in the sense that it will condition people to expect mediocre excrement from art as well... And perhaps in a few years, they will no longer be able to appreciate the real thing. It isn't a question of what is worth more or what is better, it's merely consequence... So no, it doesn't make your creations less valid or less valuable.
Okay, I think ti's everything 🤔😅😂

[DIVYA]

I'll keep drawing comfort from your words Dennis. I think it's best to reserve access to our work to only a chosen few and keep creating in the safety of our spaces. Yes?

[Dennis Wolf]

Well, I've been thinking about ways to make copying content more involving. That said, to block bots, we'd need server side implementations so we can't really do that, however, a workaround is formulating in my head 🤔 my JS, HTML and CSS are really really really rusty 🤔 but it might be possible to create our own review forms within the text of the posts, using Javascript for the logic behind it, using an external service, like Google sheets or Google drive for file storage and a chance to moderate incoming reviews... It would also allow the implementation of honeypot methods to trick bots.(input fields that are only visible to bots) provided the spammers here rely on unsophisticated bots, it should be easy to get rid of them... Especially those annoyances "hi author, love your work, hire my artistic talent to make you pretty pictures" 😂

And then to disable built in review field, I think there's a checkbox for that prior to posting. 🤔

And yes, it'd be lots of work and still not 100% effective. But in theory possible 🤔

[DIVYA]

Yes, it could work on a public site like this but with limitations. 🤔

[FlatDaddy]

Dennis, I like your style -- or at least your thoughts on this ugliness that infects us here. If there is anything or way that you can help to end it, you will be a hero to us all.

FD

[Dennis Wolf]

To end it would require collective effort, my friend, and, naturally a way to embody the simple truths of life that would, as a direct consequence, create a reaction to wipe away the taint. I suppose one way is to acknowledge that it's not good or bad, everything is merely consequence. This problem, I'm sure you can agree, since you lived longer than I, that it started long before we had publicly available technologies such as Ai. Ai, to be fair, has many uses and the consequence of that was inevitably trying to use it even more.. Even art. We'd made another crutch of a wonderful tech, one more crutch of comfort and laziness, complacency and all their consequences, one more to add to the myriad of other unnecessary crutches

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I think you can imagine where this took me. Spoiled poetry, rot, insult.
It is happening...we are no longer who we were because we have been contaminated by false inspiration moving the pens that we don't even hold anymore.
j.

[DIVYA]

You couldn't have said it better...
We are no longer who we wre...This hits deeper than one can imagine. We must resist, till we are here. Thank you for understanding, my friend. You're much appreciated, always.