Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Proto-verses stuck in queue
cold shouldered by his Muse
stranded instead with a shrew
seems he’s paying his dues
“Am hardly expecting affection
merely had hoped for direction
so will settle for imperfection!”
he versifies in dejection
Amidst twilight’s hue
in the Word Zoos
phrases won’t accrue
to cheers & boos
His cadence jammed
stone-walling
his stanzas hammed
name calling
Had hoped to glimpse words that would stir dragoons
but found mostly those from burping buffoons
By now dulled by grime their chime
rhymes grinding without cheers
Imposed too many a time
on cornered, hapless ears
To recite brambled rhyme
(obscure its etymology)
is not a victimless crime
Here’s my sincere apology!
but ceaseless the struggle to self-constrain
it shall fail over again & again
We’re wilting in complacency’s shades
lost in gutless conformity
On frequent refrigerator raids
indulgent of deformity
Lassitude has kept us callow
from solidarity strayed
Each morning’s fresh hue turns sallow
by torrid crassitude swayed
We’ll be found too light when weighed
our erstwhile souls debased
Surely this whole jam self-made
with gone sour aftertaste?
Aiming to take us for a ride
those disingenuous words
tenebrously slither & slide
pounce singly as well in herds
By blurred verbiage thronged
our attention grabbed
Bathos suffered prolonged
its contentions crabbed
Assertions spurious
cheery & braying
Assaults laborious
preying, dismaying
Spectacle precarious
in bombastic bouquet
All so faux gregarious
in dissolute decay
Airy verse warmly oblique
blows abaft, blows athwart
Rhyming bursts in thoughtful pique
lighthearted to cavort
Verse anxious to comport
without baring fangs
just aiming to transport
holding back harangues
Make stanzas tight
not staid or prosy
Make the tone light
but not too rosy
Set not out to sway
or to dissuade
Never try upbraid
attempt allay
Show mercy, so don’t hold forth
Have pity, make verses short
+)
-abaft = from the stern
-athwart = right angle to the ship’s center
Tell, has our Species ever met
someone that so hogs our time?
Anything like the Internet
that so dominates our prime?
Anything as facile as the Smart Phone
enticing indulgent seclusion?
where we are never & always alone
in such tantalizing collusion?
The hapless Post-Millennial Centaur
gallops wildly in oblivion
arrayed in alienation’s splendour
til crashed in future obsidian!
Just dismiss those with an accent
every one a malcontent!
Let’s pathologize their dissent
never justly they lament
As accountable to no one
no need to be acquitted
Does not matter what we have done
accomplished or omitted
Americans don’t apologize
nor are we ever to be blamed
We always prevail, don’t compromise
Patriots are never ashamed!
Let’s always take this stand
against all critique:
Dismiss it out of hand
or bespeaks we’re weak
+)
-apologize = “I will never apologize for the United States. I don’t care what the facts are. I’m not an apologize-for-America kind of guy” – President George H W Bush
-we = here: patriotic, jingoistic Americans
While we have of course already effectively abandoned our children and theirs by not doing anything that would significantly mitigate the climate collapse we are also now limiting erstwhile parent-child interaction. The following scenes have become routine in our very own neighborhood, viz.:
Toddler:
Being pushed along in my stroller
with Mom & her Chum the Smart Phone
a Connectedness Highest Roller
as well Dexterous Texting Clone
Child:
Got to join on a walk
with my Dad & his Smart Phone
as long as I don’t talk
may listen to his Ring Tone
Dog:
Got to ride in my People’s car
watched them turn Cyber Unknowns
drove erratically bizarre
while on GPS and phones
All Three, in unison:
While we weren’t by spilled coffee burnt
got covered by crumbs of scones
Most relieved that these ‘adults’ weren’t
piloting surveillance drones …
Upward in the crackling fire
of human commotion:
heated words flare, float in ire
howling in emotion
Prancingly they spew
ephemeral
through wide open flue
hotly feral
Swooping out like larks
from shades mislaid
burning, zinging sparks
cool off, then fade
Those cruel words of agony
stay seared in our memory
as if galloping cavalry
pounded them to emery
Every regret’s ember
dooms us to remember
An insightful article on the Obama phenomena:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175816/
inspired this verse:
Unfounded self confidence
in pompous presumption
pretending at omniscience
while shows up compunction
His baritone oratory:
Delivery alluring
while hollow declaratory
doesn’t come across assuring
Stands with those on Wall Street
against the pitchforks
His White House found effete
fast fizzled fireworks
His bringing us cool pure fantasy
in hollow cowardly drama
“Change You Can Believe In” alchemy
darkly deepens nation’s trauma
How did we turn so immobile
erstwhile engaged citizens
indulging pursuits puerile
with baffling indifference?
Bowled over by his locomotion
hawking his brand of self-promotion?
+)
-‘change you can believe in’ = Obama’s election campaign slogan
-citizen = there can be no democracy without informed & engaged citizens
-compunction = uneasiness or hesitation about the rightness of an action
-pitchforks = I’m the only thing between you and the pitchforks”, the President told a gathering of big bank CEOs on April 3, 2009:
edited 04/17/22 0900