Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Am writing here yet another verse
of life languished in delusion
In pretense putrid, pallid & terse
persevered in cold collusion
Make no waves, to go & get along
in narrow self absorbed living
Life squandered for a trinket or song
while pretending no misgiving
Earth’s habitat, turned inside out purse
our children’s lives cannot get worse
Planet becomes Humanity’s hearse
they’ll perish in wailing & curse
rse
they’ll perish in wailing & curse.
Tranquil lakes caressed by playful breeze
below the surface: Stagnation
While waves chase waives across open seas
below: Acidification
Flora, fauna, nature looted
garbage, debris & tailings piling
land, streams, lakes & seas polluted
while spindoctors spred memes beguiling
Heat waves rolling, parched by drought
groundwater depleting
This we have all brought about
and keep right on cheating …
… our children, their future gone
with nowhere left to turn
Our species now clearly done
left but to churn & yearn
Why are we so cowardly disingenuous
ain’t the challenge worthy of action strenuous?!
Expect a sunburnt smile
with white teeth gleaming
in any market isle
in trendy streaming
Spouting catchy metaphors
in tilting lilting idiom
Driving cool wheeled dinosaurs
in bumper to bumper ‘freedom’
Headed for the erstwhile Golden West
on to land abundantly blessed
in irresistibly upbeat quest
Too late, turned crowded, worn out, stressed
In unrelenting motion
have been pumping most of its oil
polluting air & ocean
depleted the bountiful soil
Time to wake up from faded dreams:
It’s getting ever hotter
fires blaze on hills & in ravines
rivers, lakes drained of water
We’re culprits of reckless squander
stared down by unblinking drought
Wake up from fantasy’s wonder:
Face it. No way, none but out
Days gone when LAid back seemed easy
brimming with optimism breezy
+)
LAid back = laid back as in LA
edited 10/14/23 1345
Watching from box suite
humanity’s last game:
In utter defeat
strangely absent all shame
Watch how during the Sixth Mass Extinction
we wreak disaster without distinction!
Whether granted one more decade
or just one more faint heartbeat
as long as own demise is stayed
we’ll sit on cushy box seat
Til fade our horrid shrieking jeers
drowned in dying oceans of tears
People wobbly, down weighted
munching on escapist diet
bodily temples sated
stuffed they’re suffering disquiet
Out on shopping paths cutthroat
for latest jolt quick fix
while can’t be bothered to vote
no time for politics
Shall they ever see themselves
as with manners oafish?
Unwittingly pushy elves
so utterly foolish
To instant gratification
they feel divinely ordained
In inane alienation
must always be entertained
What do folks so disconnected
think if they hear climate ‘change’?
Might their response be expected:
‘No exchange policy? Strange!’
These are observations not lies
watched most of them with my own eyes
+)
-elves = here: ace consumers, living out their acquisitive dreams, their pointed elf ears (antennas actually) honing in on best deals on the most popular items
One seeming seamless mall
with roars ‘cariphonia’
and merchandising gall
Of this consists its essence:
Ever fleeting new thrills!
Where to escape its presence?
High up in dusty hills!
The clear-eyed who wisely topangued
won’t so easily be harangued
+)
-‘cariphonia’ = the sound of cars in heavy traffic
-topangued = to move up in the hills of Topanga, away from LA
In this verse speaks a ‘victim’ of the suggestion, found outrageous, that she turn vegan to mitigate and delay the impending climate collapse:
Why must I be wary?
Who says I can’t eat
either eggs or dairy
chicken, pork or meat?
My palate shall come first
must taste delicious
Though my ‘for profit’ thirst
as well ambitious!
Never mind what I like eating
won’t the planet keep rotating?
While us humans run around & gush
the tide rises, sets absent all rush:
Twice daily reversing
when forward surging
flows without rehearsing
by moon’s might urging
Waves rolling back & forth
never known ailing
not in sorrow or mirth
ever found wailing
Forward, retreated
To shore replete
to sea depleted:
Cycle complete
Is our human ambivalence unfeigned
perhaps as well celestially aligned?
Horrid hearts beat unmanly
what we touch we deplete
Humans clamor inanely
each other we browbeat
Nature in overdue evolution
lashes back in rightful retribution
As humans act abhorrent
our misrule Earth contests
so with fierce fire & torrent
She cranks up her protests:
No longer upstaged!
With storms She howls
Ire flairs enraged
from Her bowels
Humans have turned Planet’s deadly disease
We’re getting shook off like, from a dog, fleas
BACK THEN those who resisted & bravely persisted:
For a ‘just vision’
they lost their jobs
landed in prison
beaten by mobs
Cruelly confined
gruesomely grilled
majorly maligned
some even killed
Still courageous & strong
stood against what was wrong
*
WHILE NOW in these splendid times:
Such actions quaint
would involve restraint
might make us faint
so favor complaint
Habitat we extirpate
while keep slapping high-five
from duties we abdicate
while Species takes nosedive!
What?! Slowing global warming
through ‘personal’ action?
Few, despite plenty warning
seem adjust one fraction
In these thrilling times ‘morality’
suffers high rate of mortality