Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Remember the past
was it not quite the blast?
But wait, not so fast
don’t we now stand aghast …
… when having to recall
our silly, witless gall?
Too many a close call
drunken nights lost in thrall
Did youth spent heedlessly
flash by in much haste
and rarely weedlessly
prove an utter waste?
+)
-weedlessly = here: clean & sober
The Philistine not only ignores all conditions of life which are not his own but also demands that the rest of mankind should fashion its mode of existence after his own.” – Goethe.
Straight faced the Philistine advises:
“Won’t stick my neck in guillotine!”
Instead he declares, no surprises:
“Like my butt in a limousine!”
No use for intrigues Byzantine
or time for Sistine Chapel
(or the fifteen or seventeen)
Prefers fries to an apple
As always by strong insistence
he brooks no interference
Perplexing perverse persistence
in painful perseverance
He’s always certain
though rarely right
How thick his curtain
and drawn too tight!
Written in 2015
First couple of Empire
so tall, fit and lean
leading us in quagmire
smiling, waiving, preen.
While both o so chichi
ain’t he a bit preachy?
Should’ve minded caveat emptor
of “Change You Can Believe In”!
stuck with “Hope and Change” Emperor
who proves ever deceiving.
Misses no chance to endorse
while he’s killing by drone
‘The World’s Finest Fighting Force’.
Predecessors’ true clone.
“We left Iraq”, says he, “Heads held high!”
How (aghast!) can that be, why?
When million people had to die
still nothing sensed gone awry?!
+)
-chichi = showily or affectedly elegant or trendy
-‘heads held high’ = “The last American soldier will cross the border out
of Iraq with their head held high, proud of their success and knowing
that the American people stand united in our support for our troops”
– Obama, Oct 2011
Her hair like flowing wheat
abundant, windswept
field fresh & earthy sweet
brimming of affect
Green eyes, cheeks in blossom
colorful splendor
smile of cheery caution
tender & slender
Since back when our first glance
my heart was brought to dance!
Whether buying socks or crockery
it’s about deliberation
Making right choice or face mockery
a taxing preoccupation!
Stuff made in sweatshop
makes for low price perfect!
Heady feel atop
with power to reject!
Total waste to try and humor
any purchase quandary
that’s faces our base consumer
who knows not of boundary
All opportunities acute
for a consumer resolute
Prudence never found too minute
for a consumer who’s astute
Day dawns in anticipation
morning opens up ‘wide screen’
There’s fleeting exhilaration
as off to work we careen
But soon fades the day in routine
stuck on the corporate track
where indignity and caffeine
afford little joy or slack
If at the day’s end we’re found drained, filled with misgiving
shall we still be counted among the truly living?
The consistently failing but still not changing U.S. foreign policy: Why don’t they ever learn?!
On the contrary! The Power Elite has learned only too well from their ‘mistakes’ & remain ever so determined to repeat them. These ‘mistakes’ feed their heady hubris and float their depraved delusions while amply providing notoriety, power, profits, careers, ribbons, pensions.
Steeped in inequality & iniquity, the Elite cannot be much bothered about the dire & deadly consequences to other people at home or abroad.
Before the tales of Gibbon
humans swung like gibbons
off to war, way quickly gone
seeking shiny ribbons
Since our Species’ dawn
man pounded chest
with taunt, flexing brawn:
“Who’s the bravest?”
The Elite gets People excited
about foreign machinations
to trust propaganda benighted:
We’re upholding laws of nations!
Though the Elite doesn’t have People’s welfare in mind
it can carry on – as we’re a cowardly kind
Our Species’ great distinction
is to precipitate
the Sixth Great Mass Extinction
which just won’t mitigate
It’s been portending
trending since long
Soon it’ll be ending
horridly wrong
Here is what it shall entail
no mere innuendo:
‘going out of business’ sale
in screeching crescendo
Whether found untoward
still Apocalypse
in climatic discord
Then Necropolis
In the final crunch
we’ll be checking plugs, cords
(cluelessly lack hunch)
in vain pounding keyboards
Amidst the climate collapse
all left is to implore
in a last breath bugling taps:
“It used to work before!”
+)
-Sixth great mass extinction = The planet has gone through five ‘great mass extinctions’ over the past some 440 million years, each of which is thought to have annihilated anywhere from 50 to 95 percent of all species on the planet. We are now well into
Try to dream with flowers
let them be it all
filling the dark small hours
staunch in rustling squall
Silently thunderous
by winds blown lustrous
frugal while generous
flowers grow wondrous
When our life glowers
try dream with flowers
Twisted like acrobatic acts
to engineer outcomes perverted
opinions offered up as facts
then glibly, haughtily asserted
On recklessness binged
in forward pose
pours on claims unhinged
anything goes!
These days seem veracity
as well as morality
eclipsed by mendacity
in foam bath banality
In times erstwhile weren’t we restrained
by facts as being impregnable?
Perhaps too old to be retrained
for when few norms are detectable
Now floating away dazzled
from Reality’s shores
we’re too creaky & frazzled
to keep pulling the oars
Thus on waves of distraction we’re drifting
when did we last do something uplifting?
+)
facts = “Factual evidence, since it is an impediment to what we desire, is banished” – Chris Hedges
edited 08/15/24 1730