We ‘signal virtue’
so to ingratiate
like those in church
who self-felicitate
As we in presumption
lay claim to be ‘woke’
then with purloined gumption
in pretense we cloak
It takes temerity
to fake sincerity
Bleat of verse effete
I do hear you, sure
but my ‘pastime’
silly, bit obscure
is quatrain rhyme
Perhaps corralled conceit
shuffling in dull dance?
Mere bleats from verse effete
in limping cadence?
Surely slight nuisance compared
to all that what you’ve been spared?
edited 07/14/24 0835
Meaning mangled in phrases fluttering star-spangled
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
Cavil cavalierly sprung
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
Grazing on screens in eerie greening sheen
‘Smartphonies’ engage at a flicker
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?
Mindless grazing, gazing
in screens’ greenish sheen
inviting, debasing
shackled to routine
‘Smartphonies’ slavishly lock eyes
with Siren Screens seductive
enticing, devious device:
Crisp, collusive, corruptive
Their attention scatters feathery
while enfeebling human memory
+)
‘smartphonies’ = those who traded their pacifier (a gateway ‘drug’) for a smart phone
Pose of Rose
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
Restraint chimeric
Have words become just something we say
subject to rash off-key abuse?
Just dumped in to the impatient fray
like ever-so-smooth TV news?
Trying express ourselves clearly
seems taxing work, so we balk
rings socially too austerely
Try listen? We’d rather talk!
What if blabber became the umbrage
while restraint conversation’s glue
in enjoyment of graceful language
shared beyond a literate few?
But as for that prospect chimeric
we’re subjected to ‘reporting’
which the blabbermouths find mesmeric
too often outright transporting
+)
‘reporting’ = unsolicited droning on about one’s own mundane doings
Slicing to quintessence
When to consume feels choking
by gorging & swilling
somewhat akin to croaking
from stuffing & filling
Then slicing to quintessence
chaos turns clarity
sails out in luminescence
opens to charity
Be it just fleetingly of course
as much of that what I write
keeps turning out manure by horse
or at best of boorish sleight
Still rather write in faux creativity
than reading in lethargic passivity
Nurses his verses
Feeble verse he nurses
mostly with reverses
Claims he just converses
though he rants & curses
in purloined blustering
sputtering, blundering:
Comely comedy
turns crotchety
Tearful tragedy
turns travesty
Thus his stilted blather
shows no dreams or sense
Foamy stanzas lather
puffed up in pretense
He prattles & perplexes
while verbiage accrues
Watch him how he digresses
swerves through ‘fast verse’ drive-thrus
If not viewed on a screen then barely seen
If it does not go
off with ding, ring or ting
or flashing lights show
then it ain’t the real thing!
If by naked eye seen
it ain’t observing
while when shown on a screen
real, worth preserving!
Smart new electronics
does not mind contradiction
though impairs mnemonics
it knows not of restriction
Cluelessly we vociferate
as its downsides proliferate