Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
With your nose on smart phone screen
wholly unrestricted
like snorting stuff up the nose
you may be ‘addicted’
Makes you feel ascendent
like anything goes
Even seem transcendent
when you’re in its throes
while just lit by the sheen
from flat fantasy’s screen
If you attempt nuance and grace
you may come across as ‘wise’
to those aces in verbal Mace
and they’ll cut you down to size
Cliches they’ll shout
thought-ending
absent all doubt
truth-bending
Their bearing & manners cocky
think Life is but football, hockey
+)
– mace = an aerosol that irritates the eyes
– wise = here: as a wise guy; a know-it-all
Should you ask perchance
what is my opinion
I may look askance
can’t be your dominion?
Could you leave it unasked?
Be it of my own making
got set up in the past
mortified, poor pride aching
So won’t be baited yet again
aftermath just too cruel
So I’ll adamantly abstain
being again that old fool
Even when earnestly solicited
my opinion won’t be elicited
Since the Romans has echoed the jingoistic cry ‘Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori’ or ‘It is sweet and right to die for one’s country’:
Awash in gushing
about what’s ‘sweet & right’
while not much blushing
of others’ dead end plight
While some ‘laid down’ their lives
at home Jingoists grandstand
keep slapping their high-fives
while just The Dead know first-hand
But why bother taking time to reflect
when easier just accept or reject?
When our ignorance willful
then a shortsighted stance
As excuse may be useful
still a poor traction prance
Any sensory input
if contradicts our emotion
experienced as hard put
obstacle to own promotion
A most treasonous act
to let into own domain
logic, justice & fact
so we repel with disdain
thus ducking away from Reality
while cowardly spouting hyperbole
+)
-willful ignorance = the practice of intentional and blatant avoidance, disregard of facts, empirical evidence and well-founded arguments because they oppose or contradict our own preferences or beliefs
A ‘Me First’ stance keeps us shielded
but locked up in insularity
might a wider scope have yielded
engaged, heartfelt solidarity?
What we don’t wish to see clearly
shall hold us back severely
If we’re sorry, regret dearly
but late for that, sincerely!
Feigning concern of the odd thing
perhaps a posting with verbal sting?
We’ll Tweet, on Facebook take a swing
but not prepared to enter the ring!
While for change with real world traction
what’s needed: Hard nosed commanders
capable of strong hands-on action
Not Twitter storms by bystanders
Like those among us effete screechers
hiding away in online bleachers
Is a modicum of intellectual curiosity & rudimentary due diligence more than can be expected from today’s fantasy & entertainment-addicted consumer (erstwhile ‘citizen’) prior to his or her opining?
Many cohorts numb & glum
suspect the intellectual
kvetch over mere modicum
woefully ineffectual
with cursory curiosity
gone awry tortuosity
they pummel in ponderosity
lacking in luminosity
Dim vision, grasping history badly
they won’t suffer facts or logic gladly
For a while and of late
many a hair-triggered spate
of much deep-seated hate
been spewing out of the gate
With good manners dispensed
in righteous ire
ugly crowds get incensed
set themselves afire
But hard of course, at the ball, not to prance
when you’re the only one who knows to dance!
For a while and of late
harsh hair-triggered spates
of such deep-seated hate
spews out of the gates
Lashing out unseemly
in rancor, anger
Haranguing extremely
in cocky clangor
As each ‘elite’ just knows they know best
no need listen to the smarter rest?
What pusillanimity
socialist insincerity!
Why fake magnanimity
bother with solidarity?
Don’t you know generosity
went long since out of fashion?
Cheap shot of grandiosity
to indulge in compassion!
Thanks, but rather stay solipsistic
than have to pretend altruistic!