Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Frejdig, rapp på flera språk
när seglade på månget hav
Förstås en svunnen epok
nu i duschen går jag i kvav
Har ej lyckats slå rot
var än världen utsmyckas
Stadigt söker jag bot
men föga troligt lyckas:
Låtsas att jag ej saknar mitt fosterland
mens längtan tar då å då svårt överhand
For better or worse
each day another race
Each morning’s fresh verse
informs my daily pace
A squeaky gate that swings
fully open hopingly:
A day that blithely sings
not one that mires mopingly
Verses fill my hours with grace
like flowers brimming their vase
“More ribs cooking on U.S. grills as meat supply increases” 5/28/18 news in our hometown paper. Wow, what a feat!
Quite the welcome feat
Americans love ribs:
More supply of meat
smoking hot, we’ve got dibs!
Short lived cattle anxiously bleat
Soon resting in their burial place
which for them, our supply of meat,
is our insatiable stomach space
Cattle’s plight? Why does that matter?
Just pile more grilled on our platter!
There exists no stronger fealty
in our late stage capitalism
than for example to realty
as entitled opportunism
Lost in stock market goosery
watching transactions careen
Splashing awash in usury
indulging profits obscene
By justification spurious
while to multitudes injurious
Situation turned precarious
as Sole Super Power crumbles
Scary, while outright hilarious
how its Power Elite stumbles
Exceptionalism losing gloss
down to bare metal, corroding fast
Nations sneer at World’s former Boss
History shows: Empires never last
Fading, ever steeped in arrogance,
Super Power tries to butt in
Civilization won’t stand a chance
when someone presses The Button:
Humans yields to cockroaches its powers
as planet swirls, a space ball that glowers
+)
-button = the nuclear weapon launching one
-exceptionalism = here the American such: ‘the indispensable nation’; ‘shining city on the hill’, etc., miraculously always the defender of what’s good, while needs not respect international law or the suffering it brings to people in foreign cultures (and systemically to its own)
Flowers tiny
Cushy carpets of tiny flowers are growing in our Spring backyard:
In simplicity arrayed
egalitarian
white & green colors cascade
clarions’s clarity
Swaying in pendulum play
with Springtime’s chilly breeze
Dancing precision ballet
harmonious their ease
Each flower a mere sliver
petals in slightest shiver
edited 09/13/22 2100
As Western propaganda
keeps glowering vitriolic
beware its memoranda:
Cast Putin as diabolic!
Rarely hifalutin
like Netanyahu and Trump
the more astute Putin
won’t join on their distraught stump
Tell me, why this mythos
Russia as ‘adversary’?
What’s so amiss with us
that makes this necessary?
Perhaps Russia must be blameworthy
so that The West can look praiseworthy?
As the morning dawns
a next day announcing
We’re ready, poor pawns
for another trouncing
But when I get myself versed
there’s air under my wings
Not ensnared, slogging cursed
among prosaic things
Lightens the day’s burden in trade-off
when starts off with a rhyming take-off
+)
well versed = here: able to write a fair verse
Våra hjärtan kalla
skramlar obevekade
Mens prylbegär svalla
överflöd förnekade
Är ej vår grunkfullhet
blott knökad tomhet
vår självgoda klipskhet
dundrande dumhet?
Vi stack klimatet i lågor
genom slarvig girighet
Ställt till fasansfulla plågor
genom tarvlig tanklöshet
Bland jordelivets fåfänglighet
står mången en onödig pryl
liksom vår egen anstötlighet
likt en hästsparkande rekyl
I vår inkrökta trångsynthet
arvet till barnen: Trolöshet!
Ungdommens fyrverkeri:
när det blixtrade å smällde
välkommen kakofoni
när förtjusade vi drällde.
Men blev snart gammalt:
Nu ej långt kvar
på livets anstalt.
Fann vi nått svar?
Ringa. Världsalltets gåta
låter sej ej inlåta.