Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Have we noticed less yelling
these days in tight traffic
less impudent labeling
fewer gestures graphic?
Do we drive more like adults
with manners to be commended
lessened the need to insult
and slower to get offended?
If so, it might be truth to say
for fear of being blown away?
At those pedestrian crossings striped
cantankerous drivers of ‘tanks’
impatiently stopped, while sometimes griped
about walkers’ deficient thanks
Obsequious must be walkers may
it’s in U.S culture, of course
prevailing attitude holding sway:
Need respect only size & force!
Thus most backward to yield
when we are the large-wheeled
+)
‘tanks’ = here: ever larger cars, SUVs et al
As a cyclist I get numerous opportunities to speculate on why the drivers who pass me leave such varying space between their car and my bike:
If ego of the ‘driver ace’
is bigger than their whatever car:
Then rarely enough passing space
as such driver entitled by far
While going to be plenty room
if smaller ego than the auto:
Then passing goes smooth without vroom
unless driver on phone like blotto
But needs not cause a glitch:
If from roadway cyclists switch
to their much safer niche
of riding down in the ditch!
Think wide car tires look so cool
and who says they waste gas?
Should not make us vain a fool
or a science slack ass!
They’re part of our urbanity
of which tires aren’t just incidental
Not a case of mere vanity
and ain’t to others detrimental
It’s not what we actually steal
It’s all about how is makes me feel
We stop & go & turn
for hours bumper to bumper
tempers flare as we churn
Minds melting, bodies plumper
Showing for others slight concern
for fear of us being scammed
Can’t learn from what we don’t discern
with hearts chilly & minds jammed
Thus we hide away in lives silly
taking dead-end paths willy-nilly
“Am dying to be slim”, the rat had told them. Life Itself listened in.
A rat rotund felt bereft
been bemoaning his plight
of being fat. Didn’t look left
skipped as well looking right
He stepped into traffic
met a fate most dire:
En end grisly graphic
crushed by a truck’s tire
When found at daybreak
he had been flattened slim
While friends in heartbreak
sort of happy for him
Be careful how you use hyperbole
it may just turn into reality!
“The pandemic has shown us that most people don’t really have the sustained capacity for this type of cataclysm” – Matt Sundin
Each time on the gas we let up
we thought ‘got away, splendid!’
but just yet another set-up
for getting re-rear-ended
Pandemic by complaints unmoved
as harbors zero feelings
thus cannot ever feel reproved
for any of its dealings
It is clearly ain’t open to polemic
when tailgating us the wily pandemic
edited 01/23/22 1610
She ate a
much too cheesy
parched pizza
made her queasy
So next she orders out Chinese
As national security risked
with swiftly patriotic ease
gets the delivery person frisked
Here’s foremost what’s at stake:
that the South China Sea
stays an American lake
Surely we all agree?
Our Empire goes to great pains
to protect the world’s sea lanes!
Behind plush home compound’s locks
stacked portfolio of stocks
and in the driveway
a monstrous vehicle
true to the cliche
monomaniacal
Enthroned sitting high up
me, entitled little elf
on my cell, with my pup
looking well after myself
On path unswerving
how well deserving!
Armored in dressed-for-success clothes
limbering our lashing tongue
cleansed out our bargain-sniffing nose:
Ready reach for the next rung!
Sharpened our elbows
we’re ready to impose
if need be bulldoze
in order to foreclose
Brashly we sally, again, out the door
never mind still clueless of what’s the score