Delusions

Delusions

The other morning

I had a long conversation

with a young man who suffered

from paranoid delusions.

Breathlessly he explained

to me how an insidious group

called the Bungalow Cabal

had been bugging his phone

and messing with his computer

for many years.

He said no one would help him

and that the cops and government

officials were in on it too.

Later in the day

I sat down at coffee

in a bar where everyone

was watching

the soccer championships

down in Brazil.

I had to ask myself

which is the greater delusion?

Those of a man

scared and all alone whose

point of view is socially unfashionable

and whose ideas hurt only himself,

or the international delusion

that it's perfectly fine for a country

to spend many billions building

sports arenas on the broken backs

of poor people who need

food, clinics, and schools

and then broadcast

weeks of games while the police

and military rob the people

of their rights to protest the oppression

so the rest of the world can

enjoy the spectacle of soccer games

either unaware or uncaring

of all the mayhem.

Dewey Dirks