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?
Not much left to heft
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
Ain’t sweating words’ meaning for fools?
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!
Conformist salutes: Then & now
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
Yeah but, I agonized in the fray
“Strip away the trivial and the banal, the empty chatter and foolish obsessions that fill our days” – Chris Hedges
Indulging each bagatelle
welcoming every distraction?
In our games of show-and-tell
we lack reality traction
Why not live to be able to say
when catches us the Grim Reaper:
‘At least I agonized in the fray
make sure to tell the Gate Keeper!’
Rather in ungainly Reality struggle
than vainly in Fantasy trying to snuggle
Day of atonement
Here with her cute Grandma looks
she’s a Jewish princess
when in her kitchen she cooks
up a pile of blintzes
Food to break the Yom Kippur fast
though we’ve been eating all day
but in these bright times who’s aghast?
We’re still ‘breaking the fast’, ok?
How we atone with others & G-d:
we’re all chomping, no one winces
Faith yes, but we must nourish the bod
Don’t be bashful: Pass the blintzes!
Ensnared in empty cold hearts
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
On the back road of least resistance
How fruitless to mumble the tired line:
‘democracy is in decline’
As well: ‘global warming is benign’
when we certainly lack of spine!
Did we not way back turn off that high road
of erstwhile courageous insistence?
Don’t we instead drive fearfully & slowed
on the ‘back road of least resistance’?
Now way late for democracy
& for human habitat
One faded in hypocrisy
other blew its thermostat
Knowing how to but less so why & where to?
Of practical tasks at hand
we’re deftly discerning
thus in impressive command
we keep right on churning
Humans clever on ‘how to’
while on ‘wherefore’ muddled
thus we’re careening askew
solidly befuddled
Soon to become an extirpated race
due to our endless greed & frantic pace
Is impatience the slave to a mind scattered?
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