Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
When we use up what is essential to our very survival we shall perish. No distractions shall save us. To ‘consume’ (Latin ‘consumere’) is to take wholly or completely destroy, i.e. to use up.
Consumers don’t just squander
they do obliterate
now and right here and yonder
they do annihilate
Humans are now consumers
of what remains on Earth
we’re the malignant tumors
assuring planet’s dearth
Plainly turning it all unlivable:
The ultimate act unforgivable
When replacing what’s factually known
with what’s been determined Fantasy
ain’t it Reality we thus disown
fawningly falling for Fallacy?
In earthly strife of opaque spec
we’re escaping on each day
our noses in gadgets high tech:
Tap keyboard ballet, ole!
While on screen devices we’ve binged
human life has gotten unhinged
Tell, has our Species ever met
someone that so hogs our time?
Anything like the Internet
that so dominates our prime?
Anything as facile as the Smart Phone
enticing indulgent seclusion?
where we are never & always alone
in such tantalizing collusion?
The hapless Post-Millennial Centaur
gallops wildly in oblivion
arrayed in alienation’s splendour
til crashed in future obsidian!
Having found Gothenburg pedantic
I had since childhood quested West
hence peered over the edge of my nest
on to horizons romantic
Clearly I inclined to manic
so sailed off to The New World
but turned no trip Magellanic
merely cruised in restless whirl
Stranger in Reality
so when I did arrive somewhere
never in finality
rarely found a tangible ‘here’
‘Far away’ may not endow
this I can sadly avow
+)
Gothenburg = the major port & industrial city on the Swedish West coast
Just dismiss those with an accent
every one a malcontent!
Let’s pathologize their dissent
never justly they lament
As accountable to no one
no need to be acquitted
Does not matter what we have done
accomplished or omitted
Americans don’t apologize
nor are we ever to be blamed
We always prevail, don’t compromise
Patriots are never ashamed!
Let’s always take this stand
against all critique:
Dismiss it out of hand
or bespeaks we’re weak
+)
-apologize = “I will never apologize for the United States. I don’t care what the facts are. I’m not an apologize-for-America kind of guy” – President George H W Bush
-we = here: patriotic, jingoistic Americans
Is anything found too cloying
these nifty days at all, such
as being outright annoying
or revoltingly too much?
Do they keep grabbing ever more
no longer knowing surfeit?
Is ‘missing out’ what they abhor
fearing that they might forfeit?
So let’s ignore their piercing plaint
following each indulgence
as it’s only through calm restraint
one shall assure abundance
+)
restraint = here: voluntarily restraint
On raids ever niggling
yet again out on foray
ever jolted, wriggling
heading out among moray
Chasing for conveniency
in hoopla unrestrained
granted full leniency
to live lives entertained
You contentious consumer
on shopping paths hallow
doggedly without humor
distracted, stuck callow
You captives of rushing clatter
paying heed to ads’ slick flatter
+)
-moray = family of brightly colored voracious eels, dangerous if provoked; here: ambitious consumers dangerous if impeded
An insightful article on the Obama phenomena:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175816/
inspired this verse:
Unfounded self confidence
in pompous presumption
pretending at omniscience
while shows up compunction
His baritone oratory:
Delivery alluring
while hollow declaratory
doesn’t come across assuring
Stands with those on Wall Street
against the pitchforks
His White House found effete
fast fizzled fireworks
His bringing us cool pure fantasy
in hollow cowardly drama
“Change You Can Believe In” alchemy
darkly deepens nation’s trauma
How did we turn so immobile
erstwhile engaged citizens
indulging pursuits puerile
with baffling indifference?
Bowled over by his locomotion
hawking his brand of self-promotion?
+)
-‘change you can believe in’ = Obama’s election campaign slogan
-citizen = there can be no democracy without informed & engaged citizens
-compunction = uneasiness or hesitation about the rightness of an action
-pitchforks = I’m the only thing between you and the pitchforks”, the President told a gathering of big bank CEOs on April 3, 2009:
edited 04/17/22 0900
Hooked on voraciously soul sucking screens
in their eerie sheen ubiquitous
Been had by corporate marketing schemes
To celeb culture obsequious
No flirtation. Hit hard on
by forces hellacious
in consumer-tech’s brash con
its pursuits vexatious
Our culture predaceous, duplicitous
a future crashing in crassitude
in a society iniquitous
we languish feebly in lassitude
Been trading snug solidarity
for barbed & smug insularity
Scripted snappy talk ‘on the surface’
passes now for civility
like spouted in customer service
with breezy ease & certainty
While on screens placidly self absorbed
aloof from solidarity
is this where we think ourselves adored
embraced in popularity?
Shall (in a world harshly hackable)
head down texting keep us placable?