Panopticon

by Tom Fillion

There sits Jeremy Bentham’s

Dissected cadaver

Inside a glass case

On a wooden stool

At University College London

The head is made of wax

Under the jacket and the waistcoat

Hides his webcam

Watching and recording

all who pass

In front of him

Now Bentham was no dummy

Despite his present condition

The wax replaced the brain

Of a renowned philosopher

Of utilitarianism

and the separation of church from state,

freedom of expression and individual rights

yet one of his ideas,

the Panopticon,

belied the others

in that people

will obey the rules

of the watchman

situated in a central location

hidden from view by all

the idea of the watchman

and not the reality

gets planted in the brains of all

so the population thinks

they are being watched

for whatever reason

whether it’s true or not

the possibility exists

that they’ re leading a double life

of someone else’s expectations

and must examine their surroundings

constantly for their extended selves

under incessant surveillance and subterfuge

from heads of wax

and cadavers in waistcoats

Thomas Fillion is the author of 5 novels and 2 books of poetry. A new novel, The Year of Broken Glass, is in the works. A number of his short stories and poems reside online. He graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa and is the third generation of his family to work at Mt. Washington Cog Railroad in New Hampshire. His experience as a waterbed set-up man inspired The Dream Mechanic, a colorful look at 1970s Me Generation. His teaching career began at Hillsborough County Adult High School as an English and math instructor. In 1991, Desert Storm, he was an English language trainer for the Royal Saudi Air Force in Taif, Saudi Arabia. He has also taught Ringling circus children and was a private tutor for Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. For twenty years he taught math and coached track, tennis, and golf at Robinson High School. He is now gainfully unemployed, i.e., retired, and spends his time writing, riding a bicycle along Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard and Riverwalk, picking a guitar, grilling some dinner, and traveling to New Mexico and Vermont. @dream_mechanic, facebook.com/dreammechanic, https://thomasmfillion.substack.com/