Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
When striving to grasp reality
how is it recognized if found
as surely abject futility
with life now in fantasy gowned?
Our personal credulity
shapes up what’s reality
Endless our gullibility
as we crave hyperbole
All faded to triviality
including hate’s lethality
Beware of life in frugality
hail corporate mentality!
Thus our personal immorality
became societal normality
An exercise in civility?
No, we opt for instant reprieve
devolves in wordy futility
from ‘Holy’ takes decisive leave
Yield to that gut surging pull
again cheaply thrilling
to chomp beyond feeling full
of slumming in swilling?
In what lies the attraction
of gorging & natter
of shattering distraction
din of verbal clatter?
Concurring with Henry Giroux that:
” … what emerges is a savage form of casino capitalism along with an
army of walking dead zombies who celebrate a narcissistic
hyper-individualism that radiates a near sociopathic lack of interest in
other people and civic life.”
inspired this verse:
While Wall Street ‘prophets’
in system degrading
make windfall profits
on pension fund raiding
We let us be manipulated
to trudge on own ‘Google coned’ day
us zombies get humiliated
as too much piled up in our way
Palpable the diagnosis:
A one-sided symbiosis!
We persist by push & aggress
may advance using cold guile.
We stir up excess, make a mess
crest our material pile.
At last, alas! We thought: Success!
We’re ‘uniquely’ distinguished
but pray tell who did we impress?
Soon we’ll all be extinguished.
Nonetheless not letting up, roiled in strife
Too busy hiding out in daily Life.
Trashing the planet while we can
ain’t hardly plunder or theft!
With so little remaining, man
not very much left to heft!
No way, not just my opinion
it ain’t me, just take a look:
The Bible commands ‘dominion’
long since read such good a book
Prefer to float on own cloud nine
spouting TV show humor
insisting on rights which are mine
as consummate consumer!
+)
dominion = Psalms 8:6-8
My o my, such an unfair fate!
Why’s all this done just to me?
All crumbling at a nose dive rate
how can this allowed to be?
I want to pile up a heap
am eager to consume
and to do so on the cheap.
So rightfully I fume:
Mother Earth, she’s a disaster.
Just thinking of herself, blast her!
Seattle 2012:
Wars, global warming or plight of the poor?
No, paper bags soon 5 cents at the store!
A situation turned dire
that aroused citizens’ ire
And no bags plastic hurt them to the core!
In erstwhile other place
in times more civil
in cultures not so base
did we mope, snivel?
While at our present time & place
feeling entitled to whine
stuck in that all consuming chase:
There’s not enough to call mine!
Chasing hard for material parts
absorbed, clinging to illusion
while ensnared in our empty cold hearts
we waste our lives in delusion
Though abundance never suffices
its pursuit seems never to cease
The allure still prods & entices
despite only restraint grants peace
The self’s ceaseless rebellion
rules in full out attack
The ego is the hellion
playing up to the claque
Impatience seems the slave
to the mind scattered
chases us to the grave
as lives blown tattered
She left ’Solidarity Among Workers’
of Russian People generous and tough
joined here ‘Me-First Apolitical Shirkers’
eager devour abundant, gleaming stuff
Yana’s road steep, long & hard
on feet, bags & credit card
Ever since setting that noble goal
of Costcoite she’s persisted
been excelling in her newfound role
quick, astute, shrewd & tightfisted
+)
-Costcoite: an ace category shopper at Costco
-Muscovite = in this case our neighbor Yana, formerly of Moscow, where her giggles still echoe in its abandoned streets