Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Since the Romans has echoed the jingoistic cry ‘Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori’ or ‘It is sweet and right to die for one’s country’:
Awash in gushing
about what’s ‘sweet & right’
while not much blushing
of others’ dead end plight
While some ‘laid down’ their lives
at home Jingoists grandstand
keep slapping their high-fives
while just The Dead know first-hand
But why bother taking time to reflect
when easier just accept or reject?
When our ignorance willful
then a shortsighted stance
As excuse may be useful
still a poor traction prance
Any sensory input
if contradicts our emotion
experienced as hard put
obstacle to own promotion
A most treasonous act
to let into own domain
logic, justice & fact
so we repel with disdain
thus ducking away from Reality
while cowardly spouting hyperbole
+)
-willful ignorance = the practice of intentional and blatant avoidance, disregard of facts, empirical evidence and well-founded arguments because they oppose or contradict our own preferences or beliefs
Strolling, to their kids inattentive
parents seen glued to their smart phones
Swept by insidious incentive
they perform as tech-prompted clones
while unseen their kids glaring glum
pining for an attentive crumb
A ‘Me First’ stance keeps us shielded
but locked up in insularity
might a wider scope have yielded
engaged, heartfelt solidarity?
What we don’t wish to see clearly
shall hold us back severely
If we’re sorry, regret dearly
but late for that, sincerely!
Feigning concern of the odd thing
perhaps a posting with verbal sting?
We’ll Tweet, on Facebook take a swing
but not prepared to enter the ring!
While for change with real world traction
what’s needed: Hard nosed commanders
capable of strong hands-on action
Not Twitter storms by bystanders
Like those among us effete screechers
hiding away in online bleachers
Society facing its undoing
sorely needed: Radical renewing
Distraction
no substitute
for action
quick, resolute
Yeah but, not that I’m inertial
leave me live my life commercial!
Are these days a modicum of intellectual curiosity & rudimentary due diligence too much to expect from today’s fantasy & entertainment-addicted consumer (erstwhile ‘citizen’) prior to his or her opining?
Many cohorts seem numb & glum
seldom sound intellectual
They kvetch of mere modicum
woefully ineffectual
Cursory their curiosity
awry in tortuosity
they lumber in ponderosity
untouched by luminosity
Dim their vision, grasping history badly
so they won’t suffer facts or logic gladly
You’re inclined meticulously
to plan & take precaution?
Then you’re lost ridiculously
in culture of incaution
A bygone mode conceptually
so why then go to the trouble
when we’re doing exceptionally
in our own sweet ad lib bubble?
Why indeed waste proclivity
on a laughed-at activity?
Took more than just happenstance
to strangle Earth in mass choking
No sweet sounding song & dance
when all species begun croaking!
Who thought the Earth safeguarded
against plenty piled up plastic
when sloppily discarded
clogging Earth with massive mastic?
Crisis deniers’ speeches bombastic
while their relation to truth elastic
She had been pining
for a charmer
a knight in shining
gleaming armor
Then caught her on-white-horse-knight
after courtship whirlwind!
A leftist who wasn’t too bright
now she suffers chagrined
By now peeled off her lacquer
an aging woman less busty
He turned out a bald slacker
armor cracked & hinges rusty
Next she hopes to find someone who won’t annoy her
perhaps a well-to-do Republican lawyer?
What pusillanimity
socialist insincerity!
Why fake magnanimity
bother with solidarity?
Don’t you know generosity
went long since out of fashion?
Cheap shot of grandiosity
to indulge in compassion!
Thanks, but rather stay solipsistic
than have to pretend altruistic!