Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Try bring up that with which we won’t deal
we’ll turn slippery like a wriggling eel
disingenuous with zany zeal
skipping away in a fierce tap dance spiel
Try mention what we won’t hear or face
we’ll spout anger quite invective
putting the messenger in their place
unguarded, jaws clenched, reactive
We’re shouting ‘arguments’ deflective
reasoning flawed & defective
then retreat in silence rejective
stuck, adamantly protective
They talk about, talk, talk about & talk
boorishly self absorbed trivia
whether they drive, shop, do rest room & walk
wherever & in Bolivia
Unfazed they are letting it all hang out
where may quietness be found at all?
excitedly they gush, prattle & spout
letting us overhear every call.
Listening less than talking & talking
puzzled by the outside objection
whether they’re eating, sleeping or stalking
love that ring or ting: got connection!
+)
‘smartphony’ = someone who traded his or her pacifier (a gateway drug) for a smart phone, and are under the illusion that it bestows unique importance & efficiency with few trade-offs
Between Fantasy and Reality
there is now little or no friction
rather perfect congeniality
Dancing cheek to cheek with swift diction
For who’s got time, awash in verbosity,
to pay much attention to dichotomy?
Are words only something we say
(while of use when pray or prey)
often a chatter game, a play
of silly flatter or flay?
Ain’t sweating meaning for fools
and hassle use dictionary?
Words need not be meaning’s mules
No! to word constabulary!
But words still prove useful tools
when needing to allay
or leading gullible fools
on to a path, astray
Although phrases may stray
do gather up a bouquet
when attempting to sway
someone to love or to pay!
In the early 1920’s through mid 40’s era:
Arm straight at 45 degrees, empty palm down, with jaw jutted upward aligned with arm. Transfixed on Il Duce or Der Fuhrer. Practiced by tens of millions, saluting those fascist unsavory squirts in their black or brown shirts, who stirred up the desperate masses.
In the current era:
Around 90 degrees between upper and lower arm, palm up,
hand slightly rotated inward, head slightly turned with jaw tilted downward.
Transfixed on The Screen. Practiced by billions of distracted, desperate masses some of whom may spend a significant portion of their income on their smarter-than-them phones, which further enrich huge corporations:
Being stuck on Fantasy’s Screen
like Narcissus focused on his bod
blind to how they fervidly preen
twittering away in ‘nose glued’ plod
But come on, try a detached look:
boorish, self centered banality
living life liking on Facebook
substituting for Reality
In both eras: poses thought beyond cool
Unless one is a ‘nonconformist fool’
+)
-Il Duce = Benito Mussolini, ruler of Fascist Italy 1922-43
-Der Fuhrer = Adolf Hitler, ruler of Fascist Germany 1934-45
Fumbling yet another glass
over hors d’oeuvre platter
spouting platitudes in mass
Spare me such void natter!
Such vain, self absorbed rattle
in verbiage feckless
midst milling about cattle
dressed in tie & necklace
Voices shrill, blaring
breathlessly ‘reporting’
onslaught unsparing
conversation-thwarting
How did we turn admass?
Why so untoward
when a subject impasse
brings silence awkward?
Time’s up, we may leave
just smile & swoon
Hardly cause to grieve
bye, until soon!
+)
-‘reporting’ = here: boorishly droning on about one’s own most mundane doings
Hoping against hope: Save my poor ear
not another repetition!
For who among us do care to hear
such runaway feeble fission?
Garrulity gone meteoric
in hapless nation dysphoric
while the gushing foamy rhetoric
soars in distortions historic
Brash opinions know not stage fright
or usefulness of sound bite
in election spectacle’s blight
accentuates all what’s trite
Those who opine show no contrition
for their spewing words pernicious
or for the lack of inhibition
on narrow paths injudicious
edited 12/04/21 1635
Set upon by darkening squall
in deep, murky waters we trawl
Keyboards clatteringly tapped
without effort or strain
Human memory lapped, gapped
does save time, while lulls brain
By smart devices electronic
bodies slumping catatonic
Instant searches counter-mnemonic
in tasks often histrionic:
Netting but victories Pyrrhic
as online joy fades dysphoric
Have gotten too immersed
in stanza & verse
as if being coerced
Outright prose averse
Struck by rhymatic fever
meant my social death knell
Life under lifted cleaver
casts lonely outcast’s spell
Keeps fumbling the prosody
until turns tragicomedy
which fades in aprosody
until picks up in psalmody
The mere sometimes lapse or slip
or am I losing my grip?
+)
-aprosody = (speech pathology) lack of variations in speech, such as speed, tone, and emphasis
-prosody = the study of meter and the art of versification
-psalmody = the act of singing psalms or hymns
-‘rhymatic’ fever = (license) condition that compels to express us in verse of rhyme
My tepid thoughts shiver
quintessentially
Its conclusions quiver
inferentially
Then like light squall
sweeping gust
in fleeting thrall
comes distrust
Gathering breeze
brings a chill
more ill at ease
than ill will
Is my mind chagrined
by happenstance
scattering downwind
by circumstance?
Or just dueling with dementia
while distracted by dyslexia?