Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Getting to take the backseat
on a vehicle of success
ain’t lounging in a box seat
or being gifted some largesse
The Poor do slide off the pillion
when Elite does a wheelie
who ‘earn’ yet another billion
throttling entitled, freely
The Power Elite
who rarely feels contrite
expresses its conceit:
“The Poor should’ve held on tight!”
As The Poor fall off on Life’s ride
the Elite takes it in their stride
+)
-pillion = here: a small cushion-like passenger seat of a motorbike
Watch our contrived smiles beaming
flooding the feigned community
see our well-brushed teeth gleaming
All relished with impunity
With entitled importunity
we’re elbowing in fake freedom
for abundant opportunity
like found in erstwhile Yankeedom
While life’s very essence seems since been wrung
what we now stand for may thus be unsung
Money a means of transaction
while speculating, profits piling
can bring fleeting satisfaction
that easily becomes beguiling
Don’t worship at financial success shrine
spend money for people’s well being
Pursue not the maximized bottom line
whilst of fairness, justice unseeing
A flat out pace pecuniary
seldom settles well salutary
(short of foulest epithet)
on the intrepid Internet
where we’re ceaselessly beset?
Please don’t shove your smartphone
so thoughtlessly in my face!
You tech-dazed, prompted clone
give me some space, show some grace!
But be it naive futility
to expect any civility?
When in their soil flowers’ grace
flows from rooted stillness
while even in crystal vase
tinged by sadness, chillness
Flowers by their roots profound
picked by purloined human longing
fade in days beyond rebound
wither, lost by not belonging
Why are flowers, which we desecrate
brought to those we want to celebrate?
Find myself apprehensive
of disruptive technology
its claimed blessings ostensive
trade-offs bring no apology
Since ages human hope has been fervent
naively over-optimistic
that technology would be our servant
Now we toil, its slaves fatalistic
Inescapably in its fetters
robbed of last chance of defiance
now also as its hapless debtors
in fine-print, rigged non-compliance
This time we shall have no revolution
that saves us from Species’ execution
There ain’t no society
among folks ‘hubristic’
it’s just a variety
of those ‘narcissistic’
Their ‘rugged individualism’
which they so me-firstly cherish
constitutes no defense mechanism
Unlike some others they’ll perish:
all alone, disaffected
ruggedly unconnected
If you insist go right ahead! Be my guest! Just don’t involve us!
Well, aren’t you persistent
it did happened in the past
may in future distant
But we would still be miscast!
For should it happen in the present
we’d rather stay unaffected!
Such a tiresome & irksome event
must out of hand be rejected!
We avoid things unnerving
enabling us to glide along
on our life path unswerving
no worry until our swan song
Until then we prefer rush headlong
heedlessly, unblushingly headstrong!
+)
-Sixth Mass Extinction = Over the last half-billion years, life on Earth has been nearly wiped out five times. It’s happening right now for the sixth time. Let’s give ourselves a big hand for so splendidly helping it along this time around!
Letting ourselves be distracted
blind to fallout, while all hellbent on
lame entertainment protracted
Real threats scorned, barely acted upon
Kicking the can down the road
in our anomie habitat
Thus reaping what we are owed
slow motion fascist coup d’etat?
Tell, when was cataclysm ever averted
by hiding out in consumerism perverted?
Right wingers march in neo-heimat
breathe out air & thought pollution
To ignore the collapsing climate
appears their preferred ‘solution’
How shall this mess, surely soon, end
as false cheers drag us in abjection?
Pernicious threats makes deadly blend
in consumer dreams, wide selection:
Wars been raging without ceasefires
as do now global floods, wildfires
Nations lacking sense to back down
prance at very edge of nuclear war
they war game ‘limited’ showdown
while ‘suitcase bombs’ may blast through backdoor
Too close to the edge we totter
in political meltdown
by the self-styled ‘genius’ plotter
revealed himself vile a clown
Economy precariously
fumbles while greed’s ruthless prophets
on Wall Street most nefariously
amass usurious profits
Enabled by our own inanity
we’re perishing amidst insanity!
+)
‘genius’ plotter = Trump