Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
“Just ride it out”, says my cheery wife,
“watch a video, write a verse
enjoy your late life without the strife!”
Until carted off in the hearse
But spared suffering, struggle & strife
how can humans live well in life?
If trivial coasting til last breath
we’re not alive before our death?
And how to pretend Life is smooth sailing
while throwing up bent over the railing?
+)
railing = here: a ship’s (hand) rail
Dare to question Tech Perfection
beyond granted latitude
and we’ll face instant rejection
thus won’t change Tech’s attitude
Our misgivings of Technology
is not to slander and belie
It shows signs of own pathology
fever chart racing up awry
Why do we march, lockstep with spring
obeying each ring & flash?
How long let brash gadgets go ‘ting’
while draining our cards of cash?
Just as long as we allow it
feed the Beast and we’ll endow it!
You’re loving effulgence
in Life’s wondrous dance
abounding indulgence
of sweet happenstance
You’re my life’s five star menu
served up in senescence
For me wobbly the venue
outside your dear presence
From our youthful romance
until, soon, our last glance
Baby Anton Oct 2013 in his stroller with Eric leaning over
Anton, aged one, seated in his elaborate stroller and Eric, his old neighbor & ground crew, meet for a morning chat, while Anton reflects:
Mom, Mom watch, watch me, Mom
handsome, unruffled.
Staying serenely calm
by binky muffled.
Mom, Mom watch, watch me, Mom
in my spacecraft seat.
With greatest of aplomb
hovering off street.
So cool by console, at controls
by all adult doubt unfazed.
Topping the baby pilot polls
my many enemies dazed.
But it can’t be a breeze
for my poor ground crew.
Eric leaning in askew
on his aging knees?
We’re two gregarious chaps
who banter when we meet
sporting similar slick caps:
The neighborhood elite.
(p.s. Mom:)
Admirers all keep rushing
squeaky voices gushing.
How do I avoid blushing?
Celeb’s role bit crushing.
The frazzled frayed old man
in light breeze shivers and creaks
Sensing end of lifespan
fuzzy his thoughts, paled his cheeks
Did he ponder too much about human history
rather than enjoying his life’s daily mystery?
Hej, krumma nätskälm
med näsan på skärmen
iförd en ‘tech-hjälm’
o så käck å färm en
Tänka sej skärmar å tangentborden
dyrkas nu som vore Fosterjorden!
What’s the true price of ‘convenience’
beyond just the purchase sticker?
Add in cost of our self-lenience
and it hastily turns sicker
incurred by a ‘wheeled fortress’ car
‘starter castle’ residence
frequent air travel wide & far
current clueless President
And in this nation most obese
we keep ordering extra cheese!
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