Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
We ignore stentorian warning:
Planetary life keeps crumbling
in depletion, pollution, warming
met by our evasive mumbling
We equivocate & grumble
just own convenience is heeded
Glaciers melt & earthquakes rumble
not taking steps urgently needed
Our children & theirs shall pay the price
if we won’t change habits, they’re doomed:
As rivers drain, temperatures rise
ending them too early entombed
But for us, for now, a small price to pay
for enjoying the American Way?
From their luxurious dreamboats
‘calm!’ commands they’re unheeding
elites scramble for the lifeboats
trampling us while stampeding
The elites perform by stealth
elsewhere they’ll disembark
with their self-entitled wealth
as per ‘me first’ hallmark
Those cold-hearted ‘point one percent’ flee first
for solidarity they have no thirst
Hey, as you’ve noticed, kids
due to your grownups’ misuse
the world is on the skids
Harsh, but what’s your own excuse?
Ponder the wider scope
beyond merely trope
perhaps you can still cope
be it on tightrope:
Ahead lie hard balancing acts
so don’t delay learning the facts!
“Amazon? Ain’t it cloud nine!”
No, didn’t mean THAT brazen bungle
where billions are spent online
but the Brazilian jungle:
its rain forest desecrated
by deforestation incessant
the planet’s lungs perforated
while humanity stays quiescent!?
Yet another fatality
through consumer rascality
Earth’s oceans asphyxiated
planet terminally polluted
wearing out dilapidated
Human Race for poor Earth ill-suited
Wars rage without ceasefires
Farmland parched from drought
ever raging wildfires
gaining heightened clout
Bridges fall, deep potholes
oceans continue to rise
ice melts from heating poles
still doesn’t seem to make us wise?
But hey, can’t you see we’re busy
by high-tech haplessly dizzy!
There’s no longer much stretch left
of our Species’ narrowing path
which, had we back then been deft,
could’ve used to brake the planet’s wrath
Instead we caused Earth to crumble
by our consumption willful
Recklessly kept up in rumble
our feigned ignorance skillful
Unwilling to restrain
we decided to downplay
Little time shall remain
until our Species’ doomsday
Our shuffling so far in dismal dance
assures that our Species stands no chance
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!
If we want to get along
mouth only the mundane
and if we want to belong
stray not in the arcane!
Let others spout their opinion
and just pretend to listen
Act the sycophantic minion
smile, best if our eyes glisten
Avoid these words to get along:
‘ascetic’ & ‘poetic’
Apply in order to belong:
‘athletic’ & ‘cosmetic’
Voice only the prosaic
like ‘we get warm by burning coal’
avoid ‘photovoltaic’
Above all do not bare our soul!
Thus we’ll evade some risk & strife
but will we lead a worthwhile life?
This verse was first written in 2018 for my son Matt, who was then living through droughts & wildfires in Topanga, amidst obviously the steep decline of the United States. In 2020 Matt moved to Sweden, where his father is from.
Trust in your guts & brains
take your leave from Topanga
for a sane place with rains
but don’t retrace to Tonga
as The Islands getting hotter
long since Garden of Eden
not long until under water
While you’re welcome in Sweden
from where easy two hour flights to Tuscana
while U.S. turns Republic of Banana
Faint prescience is all it takes
plus aptitude for a new language
So why wait to pull up the stakes
why wallow in anomie anguish?
+)
-anomie = a society characterized by a breakdown of social norms and values, here: The U.S.
-Tonga = a South Pacific island nation, to where Matt’s great grandparents emigrated and where his grandfather grew up
-Topanga, CA = just outside Los Angeles
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