Student Poetry | The Lights

"The Lights" was written by Year 8 student Theo Aitcheson, and is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Bells. It was submitted as part of his English Enrichment class and is about a gambler’s addiction and his subsequent demise.

I.

See the pokies with the lights— Flashing lights! What a world of possibility, taking one to dizzy heights! How they glitter, gleam and glow The regimented rows of the one-arm bandit king While the chandeliers’ cut crystal Casts shadows on bone and gristle While coins through slots ka-ching And the fruit’s eternal spin And the coins flow ever in To the pulsing and the sparkling of a wild, flamboyant sight From the lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, — From the glinting and the shimmer of the lights!

II.

See the golden welcome lights, Homely lights! What a world of contentment their radiance invites! Mingling with the gentle laughter Loving sweetly ever-after! From the warming, mellow shine, And embrace, While the shadows intertwine Cast on peaceful walls by the firelight's design Interlaced! Oh, from out the pleasant nights, What a river of beauty, filled with placid, calming white! Heartfelt rites Taking flight How they fly! Soar like kites Gazing down on household sights To the shining and the rhyming Of the lights, lights, lights, Of the lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, Lights, lights, lights— To the pulsing and the waltzing of the lights!

III.

See the beckoning neon lights— Seductive lights! What an enticing vision, now, their snakelike script incites! In the bloodshot eyes of urgency, How they reflect the vivid lunacy! Too far driven on to blink, Teetering, swaying on the brink, Of the ravine, Into the gaping jingling canyon of the pokies row on row, Walking with a purpose beyond all that could be known, To the buttons and the handles, the psychosis it has grown! Feeling alone, alone, alone, With a weak, despairing moan, Willpower lost forever Now in a frenzied fever, Amidst the leering dials of the machines. Oh, the lights, lights, lights! How their blinding, brilliance bites And destroys! How they loom, and stab, and slice! What an infernal device Harnessed by the governmental ploys! Yet the wallet slowly empties, Into the hungry jaws, Fed by the clutching claws, watched over by the sentries; Yet the bank accounts are red, And the wheeling, And the dealing, Leave the family filled with dread, From the writhing and the squirming in the anger of the lights— Of the lights— Of the lights, lights, lights, lights, Lights, lights, lights— In the convulsing and the shudder of the lights!

IV.

See the haloes of the lights— Freeway lights! What a world of freedom and escape their yellow hue invites! As the whooshing vehicles scream, Lost in their lonely dreams, Feet walk towards the cascade now in flood! For every beaming eye Passing so swiftly by Is a desire. And the lorries, and the trucks The only ones to solve this crux, automatons, And who rolling, rolling, rolling, In that grinding monotone, Feel a glory in so rolling O'er the human heart of stone— The feet they stumble forward— Drawn ever mindlessly onward— Into the torrent walls; And the one-armed king he rolls; And he calls, calls, calls, Calls Those dreadful hollow lights! approach with speeding fright Through the howling of the night! And they come into the sight; Roaring in the ears Blinded by the tears From the flashing of the lights— Of the lights…