Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
In every port city
blown above ship hulls
eerily the ‘ditty’
of screeching seagulls
Thus welcomed the seafarer
who soon senses constrain
and the Sea, the ensnarer,
lures him back to its reign
So with eyes teary
sailors depart mournful
of port nights weary
of landlubbers scornful
Our stinginess with language
as we gush emojis, cliches
ought it not augment anguish
over a deepening malaise?
Won’t we see how incurious
how mired in inanity
we’re when spouting claims spurious
in know-it-all vanity?
Ain’t it easily perceptional
that we’re nowhere near exceptional?
O, how smugly incurious
in our vapid vanity
when facts we declare spurious
clinging to inanity!
Smooth snappiness in language
emojis, tropes, cliches
Cannot conceal our anguish
of deepening malaise:
such as we’re The Nation Exceptional
always indistinctly conceptional
Vad jag då än ämnade
hur eller någonstans
så beklagligt lämnade
för dårskap utomlands
Inget tycks dofta
av varm trygghet
som mormors kofta
i all skygghet
Ingen vind har susat
som i min barndoms skogar
ingen dans har tjusat
som på ungdomens logar
Om jag får leva ännu en gång
ska jag lyssna till mitt hemlands sång
Faces may look ashen
of cyclists vintage
look as out of fashion
as penny mintage
But on self-selected rounds
cyclists rarely feel repletion
as riding the ups & downs
rarely results in depletion
But they find life off the bike middling
movement without pedaling: piddling
Blustering bully clown
the unhinged ‘junker’
Trump just won’t hunker down
in White House bunker
but carries on conceited
in full blown narcissism
indulges in untreated
racism, neo-fascism
His volcanic vanity
pounds in profanity
Incessant inanity
sprains human sanity
‘Reality Show’ Democracy
bestowed on us: Kakistocracy!
+)
-junkers = the landed ‘nobility’ in Prussia. their great estates (in Trump’s case: golf resorts, hotels & casinos) are worked by those with few rights
-kakistocracy = government by the vile & worst, least qualified or most unscrupulous citizens (from Greek kakistos: worst)