Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Does our watching those celebs
so wealthy & carefree
clear our drudgery’s cobwebs
thin out boredom’s debris?
Seen how, say, grocery clerks
carry on like show hosts
setting off verbal fireworks
with check-out line ripostes?
Do talk shows model us folks?
Or do talk shows inform
manipulate, joke & coax
us in how to perform?
… keeping up the banter in ubiquity
in a tiresome culture of obliquity
Some time ago Yana, our neighbor, emailed that “in these mean dark times my energy is momentarily diverted into a self-administrated, complete pedicure. For now I’m bettering the world one shiny toenail at a time.”, which inspired this verse:
In moral grime
election slime
among war crime:
She’s right on time!
In these mean dark days
she keeps hope ablaze
cutting through the haze
our Yana allays
Items unfurled
artistic
Rosy toes curled
yogistic
A pedicure
nail by nail.
No sinecure
much travail!
Got wrongs to abolish
with elegant polish
Yana standing tallish
Evil to demolish!
Common sense loses all traction
in ever contagious anomie
Hearts losing courage for action
in free fall from erstwhile apogee
Our faux free-willed self-containment
shall assure the same result
of our chasing entertainment
an indulgence we exult
as well acting out blindly
in feckless ways unkindly
I just don’t like to stoop down
to place my dog’s fresh poop
(risking stains on hands or gown)
into a bag by scoop!
So I let it lie where left ad hoc
malodorous, right on the sidewalk
But my neighbors got it handled
as dog poop sticks bit like glue
When they get home (here I’m candid)
they just scrape it off their shoe
I allow my neighbors
to do me kind favors!
We ‘commune’ by bumper stickers
and by thought-ending cliches
Feebly democracy flickers
in such debased a malaise
Ever sillier, who’d thought?
Uninformed we get out of sync
society’s bonds worn fraught
Civil discourse gone down the sink
Now in anomie mired
entertained on apps agile
In fantasy conspired
reality’s grip fragile
But what a way to go
when wishing not to know!
Such light & lovely wheat
not like grumpy rye
While she’s so gushy, sweet
he’s reticent, wry
Shall we know their true faces
within their home’s four walls?
Hurling invectives, vases
then making up in schmaltz?
Us humans but fleetingly decorous
while we’re rarely-failing obstreperous
Finding this ‘ship’ (or a perhaps a similar one)
https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/ships/gp-regal-princess/
docking in my home port of Gothenburg indignantly inspired this verse:
Those cruise ships ascensive
intrusions ostensive:
Floating (so over the top)
huge high rise city blocks
propelled by huge churning prop:
Cruising crescendo rocks!
Railed clueless passengers
grinning & gawking
they’re tourism’s scavengers
while locals mocking
Ship of schlock
please don’t dock!
+)
railed = here: lined up along the ship’s rail
Surely you have noticed how many pedestrians insist on crossing busy streets diagonally after not being bothered walking to an adjacent street corner or crosswalk? Behavior that puts others at risk be damned if we can save a few steps – even absurdly so when out walking or running for exercise!
Not in this Homeland Star Spangled
crossing streets, or at corners
do we ever walk right-angled
That’s for rigid foreigners!
In ‘One Nation under Shortcuts’
diagonally we proudly cross
whether for dire needs or donuts
We’re, as freedom lovers, our own boss!
We dash out between parked cars
into the busy street
without a ‘look left-right’ pause
with nose on screen or eat!
Except when marching off martially
poor small weakly armed nations to mangle
which is done globally, most harshly
Then our troops turn smartly in right angle!
Never mind I treat him crudely
as I live by this dictum:
He may not talk to me rudely
or I’ll turn aggrieved victim!
So what if I kicked him?
He’s just too hapless
So what if I tricked him?
So sadly sapless
Only I may claim victimhood
at least in my own neighborhood!