Panopticon (Live From Madison Street Jail)
by Gord Sellar
glittering of remote eyes
the bars are one and two and three
a walnut shell of infinite size
the cell becomes a world for me
digitally captured
transmitted through the atmosphere
microradiation scars
the webcast viewers’ gleeful cheer
this is your life before the lens
this is the way the old world ends
this is the way we blur the border
this is the way we keep things in order
clipper chips buzz off away
while we’re imprisoned in prime time
people reason reason away
and lo and behold, our ratings climb
this is your life before the lens
this is the way the old world ends
this is the way we blur the border
this is the way we keep things in order
it comes like a virus,
a secret kingdom consolidating,
microviewers and spook machines
constantly preparing, evading, invading
spreads like virus, spreads like language
infiltrating, poisonou sight
stumble into the coming age
haloed in flickering light
Panopticon, you are everything
Panopticon, you endemic trick
Panopticon, you are everywhere
Panopticon, and we don’t care
this is your life before the lens
this is the way the old world ends
this is the way we blur the border
this is the way we keep things in order
Another song written for my old band but which never ended up going beyond the melody-and-lyrics point, for reasons I can’t recall. By this point, it may well have been despairing of anything actually getting past that point. (I began to think of songwriting for that particular group a waste of time for me after a certain point, for reasons I won’t get into here.)
The “Live From Madison Street Jail” reference is to the use of webcams in Madison Street Jail in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. A more recent article about the court case that erupted over it is here, with a pretty positive outcome… sort of.
February 19, 2012