Meaning mangled in phrases fluttering star-spangled

Words coolly glitter
dashingly dance
observe them flitter
in pompous prance

Though off the wall
bouncingly banal
displaying gall
amongst their cabal

Disturbing distraction
when smoothly spouted
in make-belief traction
sense, meaning flouted

Haphazard words careen
noisily trenchant
in mangled phrases preen
as is their penchant

Phrases splashed
‘in’ words flashed
Grammar trashed
unabashed

All the while grasp gashed
facts, logic lashed
mushy meanings mashed
’same old’ rehashed

Words flow in overabundance
in hyperbolic redundance

Automatons happy, unconcerned!

The globalized economy rumbling
crushing many a society
while humanity’s habitat crumbling
in existential anxiety

Inequality as polity
conspired by the power elite
In gated, yachted frivolity:
the ever ‘rent seeking’ Wall Street

Thus condemned to poverty hollow
why do people just meekly follow?

Is it the elite’s confident stare
fashionable dress, wealth & gall
their scripted chatter, freshly blown hair
that subjugates us in their thrall?

Or rather this: What could more endear
than those lies we so eagerly hear?

Thus the teller of the truth is doomed
as we cannot handle getting informed
We are the automatons well groomed
to just pretending ‘happy unconcerned!’

+)
-‘rent seeking’ = (economics) activities which do not create societal worth, just redistribute existing resources

 

Fresh from ‘successes’ elsewhere, up next: China!

Beltway stuck lascivious
in politics insidious
Flimsy pretexts devious
brings on aggression hideous

Elated by advanced hardware
men in power act like boys
Those ‘warriors of the armchair’
want power, ribbons & toys

Safely back home they adore war
martially heroic lore
Ordering troops to roar & gore
to settle a phantom score:

Merciless U.S. guns
destroyed poor Iraq
Couldn’t even sweep the crumbs
left from this ‘cake walk’

While the U.S. been unable to defeat
‘medieval’ Taliban, al-Qaeda bands
North Koreans, Cubans or Vietnamese
‘enemies’ in the world’s modest back lands

Now foments a new Cold War with the Kremlin
such as in Ukraine by regime change coup
but Donetsk & Crimea, far from crumbling
stands up to Kiev’s neo-Nazi hue

Thus fresh from ’successes’ up next:
Pivoting with mindless ease
supercilious muscles flexed:
Trying bully the Chinese!

Droning on about its ‘finest hour’
while fading fast its sense & power

+)
-the Beltway = the U.S. power elite
-phantom score = Contrary to e.g. John Quincy Adams’ foreign policy aspirations of 1821:
“But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.
The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.”

 

Unrestrained to be entertained?

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

On watching the 2016 ‘debates’

Clinton & Kaine, Trump & Pence

in stale slogans-slinging babble
devoid of much style or sense
against us the struggling rabble

Here’s their campaign memoranda
First: Stoke our fear, greed & hopes
like in all good propaganda
aimed at us gullible dopes

Then: “In rightful belligerence
ride with us, shiny White Knights!
In utter sweet deliverance
“Reclaim our very birthrights!”

They keep us riled & incensed
in willful ignorance
so that we’re voting against
our own true interests

By holding up shiny Redux
they’re keeping us always in flux!

Mirage creators, slick myth narrators

In these so called ‘debates’
we’re fed thin gruel
while opens all floodgates
to base & cruel

Those scripted ‘debaters’:
Mirage creators
in-the-wings dictators
slick myth narrators

Discombobulated
populace fretful
seen our hopes deflated
by priors fateful

Even so we keep up our drool
the sure fate of the hapless fool!

 

Roads avaricious lead to dead-ends pernicious

Might those unknown ‘truly humble’

be the sole ‘adults’ these days
those who rarely are heard grumble
those few who’d rather shun praise?

Shouldn’t those ‘faking being modest’
be deserving of our wrath?
These days invasive as sawdust
how they’re clogging up our path!

Who is propelled by humility
when comes to piling worldly excess?

Tailwinds push truculently
on many roads avaricious
wide, they gleam luminously
leading to dead-ends pernicious

Seems mere flash of futility
when pushing too hard for success?

+)
-‘adult’ = an emotionally, mentally & socially mature person – seen many recently?