Pronoia

How many of y'all have ever been paranoid?
Ever walked down the streets and had an irrational feeling the world is against you?
That behind every corner is some child snatcher Voldemort Captain Hook waiting to steal us away.
That this world, is the worst of all possible worlds.

And there are many truths to counter this fact
Some say that yes, it's true, this world is against you
That you are one sperm of many,
The odds of you being alive are so small, they're almost nothing at all

Some say the world is neutral, that it. cares. not.
That its just a ball of rock spinning aimlessly in space
That we are going to be gone, something soon forgot
The fleeting memory will have been run of the human race 

So I want to introduce everyone of you to something new
Something I hope will change your world for the better.
Its something I wish the whole world knew
Something that can rewrite fate's apathetic life letter

So welcome to the best conspiracy you've ever saw
Whose aim is going to shake you right down to your core
Whose aim is to do good and nothing more
So welcome to pronoia, open up your door

And though this premise may make you laugh
The Universe is a conspiracy on your behalf
So if you're feeling down, then let me assure you that you've
Not seen the world is plotting to make your life improve

There's random acts of kindness happening around this earth
People helping one another to counteract fates curse
But its a two way conspiracy, so we need your support
To join in our fight, cause its a battle that's worth being fought

Welcome to our conspiracy, we're a kind employer.
The world is fighting for you. The world is Pronoia.

***

I'm retroactively uploading my pre-2013 poems. This is one of my favourite first ones, even if I don't quite know when it was written. In fact, it's being uploaded because I'd like to perform this one again soon.

 

Fluid Dynamics

Yo Yo, Mansfield Represent.

Although many of you may not know it, I consider myself a poet,
And when I give my rhymes its like fluid in a pipe - I like to flow it.
But there's societal shear stress, pushing back at me
But no matter how fast I spit lines they still affect my profile in velocity
Yet no matter how much they make my skin friction crawl
They can't compete against a potentially inviscid poetic addiction at all
If you have a central passion, you'll always find boundary interference
But overcoming this stereotyping drag is just the human experience
So I'm thinking you should wake up from your slumber, go out there and do it,
Or just go drinking and be like Reynold's with his number - never counting units.
Just do whatever it is you want without resistance, regret or fear
After all, you are the central flow, you are the person now in the know, you are an Engineer.

A little bonus poem from November 2012 I found when clearing through my emails. Written for Prof. Tom Povey, who set all the engineers a challenge to write a poem on fluid dynamics. He actually got me to perform mine in front of the lecture hall (as opposed to the rest which he read out). I think he called it "the first genuinely poetic submission he had received in his years of doing it".