Statutory Warning Poem by Prabhakar Subramaniam

The ad carried
A statutory warning
'Watching this
Can be injurious
To your health'
Yet we ignored it
Courting slow death
Inhaling smoke-wrapped temptations
Second by second
Beat by beat
Thinking someday it could be us
This side of the screen
No more the one coveting, chasing, sighing
But being the one coveted, chased and sighed over
Pointed at, envied, imitated
Finally, knowing there was no more arriving
Perhaps, wishing there had been no arriving.