Slam+Poetry

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 * Fake Reality **

**Have you ever felt the need for a break, **
 * Maybe to go where everything is fake, **
 * A place with unlimited cake, **
 * Were even if you fail you can always retake, **
 * A test of the best, a never ending rest, **
 * If you chose to lose one day and win the next, **
 * The place of fun, where everything can be won. **
 * You can do anything, or nothing, **
 * Fake reality **


 * Right now a “Fake Reality” sounds pretty good, **
 * But it is greatly misunderstood. **
 * With all the highs and lows, **
 * Crime filled fellows, **
 * It really isn’t the place to be, **
 * If you plan on being truly free, **
 * Away from the chains of addiction, **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">From the friction, **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">of a Fake reality. **

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** Totally like whatever, you know? **

// by Taylor Mali // In case you hadn’t realised,

it has somehow become uncool

to sound like you know what you’re talking about?

Or believe strongly in what you’re, like, saying?

Invisible question marks and parenthetical you know’s and you know what I’m sayings

have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences?

Even when those sentences aren’t, like, questions? Declarative sentences – so-called

because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true, ok

as opposed to other things that are, like, totally, you know, not -

they’ve been infected by a this tragically cool

and totally hip interrogative tone?

As if I’m saying,

don’t think I’m a nerd just because I’ve, like, noticed this; ok

I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions,

I’m just, like, inviting you to join me on the band wagon of my own uncertainty

What has happened to our conviction?

Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?

Have they been, like, chopped down

with the rest of the rain forest? you know?

Or do we have, like, nothing to say?

Has society just become so filled with these conflicting feelings of ‘nugh’. ..

That we’ve just gotten to the point where we’re the most aggressively inarticulate generation

to come along since. ..

you know, a long time ago! So I implore you, I entreat you and I challenge you

To speak with conviction.

To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks

the determination with which you believe it.

Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,

it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.

You’ve got to speak with it, too.

**Taylor Mali places a lot of poetic devices into this poem. For <range type="comment" id="392814">instance "Has society just become so filled with these conflicting feelings of ‘nugh’ . . ." uses onomatopoeia to explain a feeling in less words. "Where are the limbs out on which we once walked? Have they been, like, chopped down with the rest of the rain forest?" Shows us a how they are gone in a more humorous manner rather than simply stating that they are gone. The theme of this poem is acceptance. It talks about how we will make ourselves sound less intelligent to be accepted into a large community. I chose this poem because I found it very humorous and at the same time very accurate.** **I would like to have seen more explaination of thematic concepts in your analysis of the poem.**

**27/36**