Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
På Livets vickiga spång så smal
trängs vi fram till allas förfång
Svårt att se hur vi har annat val
tvingade av bittert nödtvång?
Högt ovan Dödens djupa forsar
kan vi oss bara förfasa
att i ögonblicket vi korsar
alltsammans ska plötsligt rasa
Tills dess i ovisshet våra liv snurrar
vare sej vi beklagar eller hurrar
Words coolly glitter
dashingly dance
observe them flitter
in pompous prance
Though off the wall
bouncingly banal
displaying gall
amongst their cabal
Disturbing distraction
when smoothly spouted
in make-belief traction
sense, meaning flouted
Haphazard words careen
noisily trenchant
in mangled phrases preen
as is their penchant
Phrases splashed
‘in’ words flashed
Grammar trashed
unabashed
All the while grasp gashed
facts, logic lashed
mushy meanings mashed
’same old’ rehashed
Words flow in overabundance
in hyperbolic redundance
When on sugar, dairy
meat & chicken fed
our stomachs turn wary
as our waistlines spread
Indulging food, fat & salty
in lifestyle sedentary
downing drinks distilled & malty:
Shortcuts to cemetery!
On the smooth wings of chocolate
we soar into sweetened space
but lightheaded in the cockpit
we’ll crash in nauseous a place
Cheese of ambrosial yellow
sliced so thickly & warm
while the milk cows do bellow
as their udders deform
We leave our conscience unheeded
of ‘dairy farming’ cruel
If not morally enfeebled
wouldn’t we rather slurp gruel?
+)
-gruel = here: how anyone ‘addicted’ to salt, sugar, dairy, meat & sweets would regard any dish lacking these ingredients
Why do conversations unravel
and veer off in periphery?
After that someone springs a ‘cavil’
it’s downhill, and not gingerly
Scattered in off-subject traveling
swimmingly darts the ‘red herring’
In all directions unraveling
of logic, reason despairing
The cavalierly cavil
far from the Holy Grail
rather ‘diversion devil’
seldom been seen to fail
Leaves us to watch the verbiage chase
once again a ‘facts jumps the tracks’ case
on their ubiquitous gadgets
spouting latest cool banter quicker
regressed in abysmal habits.
Hail, Time Gobbling Vulture
of the texting kind!
In virtual culture
why exert one’s mind?
Attention scattered feathery
enfeebling human memory
‘Smartphonies’ slavishly lock eyes
with Siren Screens seductive
enticing, devious device:
Crisp, collusive, corruptive
Mindless grazing, gazing
in screen’s greenish sheen
inviting, debasing
shackled to routine
Swamped, we get ever lazier
makes us a dull-edged rapier
+)
‘smartphonies’ = those who traded their pacifier (a gateway drug) for a smart phone
Winter now fading flotsam
lost in tenebrous wake
while the Spring’s tender blossom
bursting fully awake
Dancing blinding sun rays
reflections oblique
among brief showers race
playing hide & seek
In streets trees stretch their eaves
blows a gentle tepid breeze
through giddy tender leaves
like sound of slipping chemise
To roll through cherry blossom portal
brims the heart of this rhyming mortal
Are we placed here to get along
to act with sincerity
to stand up against what is wrong
in strong solidarity?
If put on earth to share
how are we doing?
If put on earth to care
how is it going?
Rather elbows sharp
mostly me first?
Do we harp & carp
gripes, grudges nursed?
We seem stuck estranged
Since when? No mystery
for not much has changed
believe our history:
Humans hardly humane
as far as species
We grab, lie, cheat & feign
& drain like leeches
States, people not united
What passes for Congress
off in fantasy, blighted
least harmful in recess
Corporations prevail
Progressives backslide
HighTech to scant avail
as outlooks collide
Celebrities & brass
lie to cover their ass
Luggslitet sjabbigt ‘samhälle’
där folk ej längre vet hut
Ett grymt självupptaget ställe
där förnuftet spårat ut
Medan nöjen distraherar
ständigt Pentagon krigar
Lögn med fakta kolliderar
på många världens stigar
En stormakt som bråkar överallt
självgod å inbilsk å känslokallt
There! The thud on the porch
paper is brought in by Rose!
It lights her morning’s torch
settling in reading repose
The pose of her nose close
leaning in perfect adjure
reading in morning’s throes
absent acclaim or abjure
Every page she’s scouring
all news vacuumin’
All newsprint devouring
unmatched acumen
As long as it is all prose
it grabs the affection
of our ’suction cup nose’ Rose
Except the sports section