Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
That citizens sleep on sidewalks
engenders but little compassion
while belligerent China hawks
are in exceptionalist fashion
To send our young crisply uniformed
endowed by ‘defense’ budget bloat
amidst cheers by public uninformed
to sally beyond our own moat
Billions squandered sparring in the South China Sea
by a ‘civilized’ nation … how can it still be?!
There was this (not that young) man named Brian
who went for an anti-racial buy-in
placed a BLM sign on his lawn
to show off his political brawn
and keeps it there while neighbors’ zeal dying
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 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 the marked 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
find 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
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?
+)
-Tonga = a South Pacific island nation, to where Matt’s great grandparents emigrated (from Sweden before WW1 and where his grandfather spent his childhood
-Topanga, CA = just outside Los Angeles
before the virus pounced
would we be in ‘house arrests’?
Life as we knew it trounced?
While for scientists problematic
since turned inept & erratic
by boastful meddling trumplematic
while his base cheers on ecstatic!
Of such noble creed & greed
how come ‘leadership’ lackluster?
Why won’t this Virus pay heed
to blaming, bully & bluster?
We allow little latitude
while stingy on encomium
As plenty persons’ rectitude
prove brittle like chromium
In such numbers
among us
they lumber
humongous
While few those marching erect
on Life’s path proudly perfect
Strolling, of their kids inattentive
parents seen glued to their smart phones
Swept by insidious incentive
they’re performing, tech-prompted clones
Involuntarily
whether dad or mom
acting out squirrelly
to calm any qualm?
while unseen kids glaring glum
pining for an heedful crumb
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
For massive misology
sprightly slighted ecology
chaotic chronology
they offer no apology
Wasted to first search out facts
in world narcissistic
Merely declare what attracts
with quips jingoistic!
While objecting to such ‘reporting’
is found culturally unsporting