Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
While the rich get wealthier
with tax breaks, bailed outright even
they get so being stealthier
entitlement they believe in
While the permanent underclass
has throughout history been struggling
this poor willfully ignored mass
needs for its daily needs be juggling
Still: Beyond roof over heads & food on their tables
rich & poor alike indulge sports & celeb fables
In this world newfangled
the roots of inequality
run deep, twisted, tangled
enmeshed in frivolity
Kept the hope of the poor stifled
while by the powerful rifled
Q: “Why are you not putting on a mask?”
A: “I’m not culpable for your health
I’m self-reliant, so do not ask
also won’t be blamed for my wealth!”
If this is how some of us are
how did we stray so deep & far?
Q: “Still thinking we’re better than this?”
A: “We’re no effete Swedes or feeble French
so, World, come give U.S. a kiss!”
(albeit amidst conceited stench)
Thus we keep up the narrative:
Pretending to empathize
high-handed & declarative
averting our empty eyes
Masklessness leaves the Covid threat cowardly vague
while masked have we not faced that we’re all in a plague?
Yes, too much to ask:
Don’t interfere
we won’t wear a mask
too cavalier!
Then haven’t we sacked
any & all fact?
With all lies stacked
lost all sense & tact?
Facts are too socialist & abstract
won’t let such ungodliness detract!
Were we only wilful
but gotten pompous, prideful
(while albeit skillful)
supercilious, spiteful
Ignorance is far from bliss
When we stare in to the abyss
facing Death’s contagious kiss
affections gone gravely amiss
Still to look up all facts
applying logic, fairness
are such burdensome acts
risking tinged by awareness
Why be bothered taking time to reflect
when prefer to just accept or reject?
‘Leaders’ now talk about the Covid-19 struggle as ‘war’. If so – a long overdue change from the gruesome practice throughout history of sending the very young out to fight & die. Fairer now when the old folks at home become the casualties. Still what remains the outrage is how ‘essential’ workers (many poorly paid with few benefits & poorly protected) are sent out to work & die.
In most wars the young
were sent out to perish
most often unsung
or cheered with praise garish
The old folks at home jingoistic
of soldiers horrors euphemistic
Now in the Covid ‘war’
with its surreptitious gore
Lady Justice keeps score
shredding such mythical lore
Now the young live for another day
while the old folks keep dying away
What might just have been understood
had we learnt from history
(not been hoodwinked by Hollywood
or engaged in sophistry):
We must slow the back-to-normal urge
for were it even feasible
would be no solution, merely surge
something purely appeasable
As the erstwhile normal was the cause
for the Covid wake-up call, of course
We grind in daily strife absurd
opaque our faith & locus
Reality banned, vision blurred
all jarringly out of focus
We’re distracted by games of fantasy
with noses on screens ubiquitous
sunken in political apathy
to power elite obsequious
As we woefully bray
behind foul a bellwether
aren’t we deserving prey
to perish all together?
As we’re pretending be discreet
while we’re just cowering effete?
I’m tired of debating
even just discussing
discord turns deflating
finding all nonplussing
My words stream
unfittingly
yell & scream
earsplittingly
Too many empty words
keep rattling along
galloping in wild herds
they just don’t belong
Worn out finding myself discordant
so pursuing where I’m concordant
Gained quite the stage presence
that Virus wily & vile
Might its omnipresence
the Power Elite beguile
as trade-off to crisis protracted
when our attention got distracted?
Stole away our concentration
on workplace exploitations
on our climate abdication
on cruel deportations
Elbowed out our awareness
of corporate giveaways
societal unfairness
injustice in too many ways
Rarely been better times
for scamming & high crimes