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Dissent pathologized, nothing apologized

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

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Abandoning a generation

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 …

 

 

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Every regret’s ember dooms us to remember

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

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Baritone, ‘Barrytone’

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

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Our ‘tinderly’ ignitable heart

Tirelessly our hapless Tongue
so recklessly wagging
Keeps hurling havoc far flung
bragging, ragging, snagging!

Our self-righteous racing Mind
contentiously nagging
How unrestrained we’ve opined
in pursuit unflagging!

Let our Hearts be more than pumps non-excitable:
The place where we live ‘tinderly’ ignitable

+)
‘tinderly’ = interweaving ‘tinder’ with ‘tender’

 

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Crispest of bleat without missing a beat

His pompous, facile verbiage soars
while lying through his gleaming teeth
The figurehead lets us down while scores
his Beltway knife loosened in sheath

His faux ‘Change You Can Believe In’ brand
once seductive consumer pitch
now shown up as empty, stale & bland
still serves the powerful & rich

A President so crisp & elegant
coolly projects noble sentiments
but were his soaring speeches eloquent
helpful for those in drab tenements?

One shameless, specious scheme of bait & switch:
Saying versus doing without a glitch

+)
The Beltway = metaphor (from it’s D.C. locus) for the Power Elite

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Traded snug solidarity for smug insularity

Hooked on voraciously soul sucking screens
in their eerie sheen ubiquitous
Been had by corporate marketing schemes
To celeb culture obsequious

No flirtation. Hit hard on
by forces hellacious
in consumer-tech’s brash con
its pursuits vexatious

Our culture predaceous, duplicitous
a future crashing in crassitude
in a society iniquitous
we languish feebly in lassitude

Been trading snug solidarity
for barbed & smug insularity

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Words follow words obtuse

Through fully opened sluice
words gush profusely
wave follows wave obtuse
ashore diffusely

Conveyed in smarmy smooth style
modulated, attuned
words customized to beguile
glibly, quickly communed

Words mindless of direction
locked in obduracy
empty of much reflection
pound in profligacy

If you take to heart much of what blurts
then you shall receive your just deserts!

+)
just deserts = (idiomatic) punished in a manner appropriate to one’s actions (plural only & indeed spelled ‘deserts’ while pronounced as if ‘desserts’)

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Worse than Hitler?

No one may be a belittler
of the Evils brought by Hitler!

Still what is now holding sway
in ignorance fabled
to History’s sheer dismay
others are now labeled:

Like Hitler! Not like but worse
claim elites Americanized!
Unhinged, untenable curse
lie kept alive propagandized

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Busy as bees but with breezy ease

Scripted snappy talk ‘on the surface’
passes now for civility
like spouted in customer service
with breezy ease & certainty

While on screens placidly self absorbed
aloof from solidarity
is this where we think ourselves adored
embraced in popularity?

Shall (in a world harshly hackable)
head down texting keep us placable?