Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
In these so called ‘debates’
we’re fed thin gruel
while opens all floodgates
to base & cruel
Those scripted ‘debaters’:
Mirage creators
in-the-wings dictators
slick myth narrators
Discombobulated
populace fretful
seen our hopes deflated
by priors fateful
Even so we keep up our drool
the sure fate of the hapless fool!
When in 2016 my spouse tried to get me to adopt a smart phone I told her that I already had a pacifier as a baby, that I hoped to live out my last year(s) head held high – not with my nose stuck on a tiny screen, and it’s ring being my command.
Turning me a smartphone
run-of-the-mill clone
good grief, I moan & groan
What’s next? A small drone?
Hyping of cyber connection
how’s that an act of affection?
I don’t hold any sway
Just ever more proof
of having zilch to say
Suspect I’m but a fool
probably prideful
Had hoped witty or cool
even insightful
Lies not here the opportunity
of picking a path harmonic
to great relief of community
and turn ever more laconic?
While she was quite resolute
maybe not all that astute?
Canning industry she chastised:
“Insufficient space between!
Way too crowded!”, she agonized,
“for each little canned sardine!”
Too narrowly focused
blazed away on her warpath
protests wreaked like locust
until grasped in aftermath:
Surely there’s more sardines crave
than mere space in their tin grave!
While short time now remaining
got all time presently
(in real-time, without feigning)
to listen pleasantly
While I was listening
to understand too harebrained
my heart wasn’t enlisting
back when ample time remained
Could only have playacted
as feeling compassion
when so blithely distracted
not the youthful fashion
I’ve been clueless of a lot
but right now my ear you got
The ‘One Nation Exceptional’
now resoundingly unmasked
while ‘Greatness’ just conceptional
still being pitched unabashed:
Ready for another bait & switch?
He’s prickly, prone to toddler fits
This time around plays in mega kitsch
short on manners, knowledge & wits
Howls in a hurricane of glitz
klutzy & shallow clamor
disingenuous repeat fits
A narcissistic scammer
A vainglorious con artist
from reality unhitched
Voters not informed or smartest
being too easily sales pitched!
Mindless consumer minions
though can’t be bothered with facts
entitled to their opinions
as propaganda distracts:
whether in The Beltway or backwoods
sadly they buy a sick bill of goods
+)
-The Beltway = the Washington, DC power elite
-One Nation Exceptional:
“The United States has always been corrupt, savage and brutal. It has always been wildly dysfunctional and hypocritical. But now, thanks to a president-elect who is loudly ignorant and utterly devoid of impulse control the mask is off. The horrible truth about the United States can no longer be denied. Trump epitomizes truth in advertising. We’re a nasty, crappy country. President Trump suits us fine.” – Ted Rall
Oh, what nonsense conferred
Claiming it is us who drive
while in backseat chauffeured
How we presume & connive!
We wobble gushingly inane
Us boorish bloviators
we hobble on presumption’s cane
rubber sword gladiators
We ignore contradiction
with our suavest diction
Our syntax dereliction
turns pureed affliction
Between reality and fiction
there’s absolute absence of friction
A verse lacking lived subject
neither uplifts or stings
It won’t engage & project
if lacks air under wings
If the writer didn’t perspire
it won’t grab or aspire
it simply cannot inspire
verse is doomed to expire
A hardly missed verse
carted off by hearse
+)
-lived = here: experienced first hand by the versifier
Consumer electronics, what impatience
be they alarms, smart phones, pads or scanners!
Where went subtlety, flirtation, elation
as well courtesy, humor & manners?
Outpouring in relentless profusion
steeped in undiscerning commotion
Suspended in a Land of Illusion
pounding away in self promotion
High time now to disengage with forethought
as fear being changed in to a robot!
Phrases swift, glib, bouncy & cheap
cascade in bombastic profusion
pile up in bewildering heap
fueling cacophonous confusion
While the lucid sentence garroted
(amidst clamouring derision)
the cliché-like phrase pours parroted
heard as expression elysian
But who among us pays heed?
Let uptight linguists accede