Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
The grinder manual
a squeaking jewel
of process natural
zestful ritual
Among machines
manual is ‘end’
that fulfills ‘means’
in transcendent blend
We shall be finding
pure peace of mind
when by hand grinding
New shifts align:
Caffeinated manna
wondrously falls, wends
In pure dulciana
fragile fragrance scends
When replacing what’s factually known
with what’s been determined Fantasy
ain’t it Reality we thus disown
fawningly falling for Fallacy?
In earthly strife of opaque spec
we’re escaping on each day
our noses in gadgets high tech:
Tap keyboard ballet, ole!
While on screen devices we’ve binged
human life has gotten unhinged
Tell, has our Species ever met
someone that so hogs our time?
Anything like the Internet
that so dominates our prime?
Anything as facile as the Smart Phone
enticing indulgent seclusion?
where we are never & always alone
in such tantalizing collusion?
The hapless Post-Millennial Centaur
gallops wildly in oblivion
arrayed in alienation’s splendour
til crashed in future obsidian!
Hey, Nose on Screen, waiting to chew
check this nifty ‘winglet’ thing!
They are rarely more than just two
one at the tip of each wing.
Whether of much use those winglets
or the plane a sleek cygnet
whether most pilots wear singlets
or air travel mere figment:
Still heart & soul of air travel
seems the ‘wheeled larder’? Take heart!
No risk in sky to unravel
for here rolls the service cart:
Heavenward passengers scoot!
Of winglets, who gives a hoot?
+)
-winglets = small angled wing tip extensions which provide extra lift, reduce drag & fuel consumption (somewhat)
While we have of course already effectively abandoned our children and theirs by not doing anything that would significantly mitigate the climate collapse we are also now limiting erstwhile parent-child interaction. The following scenes have become routine in our very own neighborhood, viz.:
Toddler:
Being pushed along in my stroller
with Mom & her Chum the Smart Phone
a Connectedness Highest Roller
as well Dexterous Texting Clone
Child:
Got to join on a walk
with my Dad & his Smart Phone
as long as I don’t talk
may listen to his Ring Tone
Dog:
Got to ride in my People’s car
watched them turn Cyber Unknowns
drove erratically bizarre
while on GPS and phones
All Three, in unison:
While we weren’t by spilled coffee burnt
got covered by crumbs of scones
Most relieved that these ‘adults’ weren’t
piloting surveillance drones …
Hooked on voraciously soul sucking screens
in their eerie sheen ubiquitous
Been had by corporate marketing schemes
To celeb culture obsequious
No flirtation. Hit hard on
by forces hellacious
in consumer-tech’s brash con
its pursuits vexatious
Our culture predaceous, duplicitous
a future crashing in crassitude
in a society iniquitous
we languish feebly in lassitude
Been trading snug solidarity
for barbed & smug insularity
When death by beheading
just the targets die
No bystander shredding
when children’s limbs fly
Nor any hospital wrecking
cultural desiccation
drone obliterated wedding
whole country devastation
Mass killings industrialized
by U.S. Exceptionalism
propagandized as ‘civilized’
though slaughter by Imperialism
Casualties mere ‘collateral’
when by Western Technology
While ‘war crime’ by Those Fanatical
of differing ethnology
Still each death an execution
under whatever delusion
In one by one retribution
or in conveyor profusion
Scripted snappy talk ‘on the surface’
passes now for civility
like spouted in customer service
with breezy ease & certainty
While on screens placidly self absorbed
aloof from solidarity
is this where we think ourselves adored
embraced in popularity?
Shall (in a world harshly hackable)
head down texting keep us placable?
(Written in 2014 after the US sponsored Maidan ‘regime change’ coup):
Now in Eastern Ukraine:
In Donetsk & Luhansk oblast
indiscriminate shellings
Western media not aghast
though hit hospitals, dwellings:
Local life & culture defaced
while thousands killed, millions displaced
Soon again in the Gaza Strip:
Time again. It is a
‘mowing of the lawn’
in defenseless Gaza
by IOF ‘brawn’
Like Freedom & Democracy inflicted on Iraq:
When phosphorus, uranium depleted
obliterated ancient Fallujah
by U.S. Empire in war crimes conceited:
Once again Freedom spreads, Hallelujah!
Industrial slaughters by design
while the world looks the other way
Failing help from Providence Divine
hapless civilians the main prey
+)
-Fallujah = dates from Babylonian times. White phosphorus bombs & depleted uranium shells were used by U.S., British & Iraqi forces under the command of General James Mattis in Nov 2004
-IOF = ‘IDF’ (Israel Defense Forces) a misnomer; rather the ‘IOF’ (Israel Occupying Forces)
-‘moving the lawn’ = Israeli policy phrase for the ‘degrading’ of Gaza every few years
Do we barely spare a glance
for Spring’s tender flower
while reaching enraptured trance
when we Online cower?
To seek peace in single pursuit
persevered for its own end
(be it heartrendingly minute)
ain’t that when we may transcend?
Yes, a fair chance when flowers we’re smelling
While squinting online? Case less compelling!