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.”

 

Riding the ‘Coast Starlight’ at night

Drawn owlish train whistles
in plaintive shrillness
each piercingly chisels
through nightly stillness

Through windows in blurry caprice
darkly flash by power poles
Swaying coach cradling us in peace
lounging bodies, stirred up souls

Thunders through crossings’ clangs
of collapsing crescendo
fading as also-rangs
until mere innuendo

Through mountains, along banks
rolls the Coast Starlight
Each wheel set timely clanks
in silent moonlight

+)
-also-rang = rang: past tense of ring; from ‘also-ran’
-Coast Starlight = the Amtrak train between Seattle and Los Angeles

Nurses his verses

Feeble verse he nurses
mostly with reverses
Claims he just converses
though he rants & curses

in purloined blustering
sputtering, blundering:

Comely comedy
turns crotchety
Tearful tragedy
turns travesty

Thus his stilted blather
shows no dreams or sense
Foamy stanzas lather
puffed up in pretense

He prattles & perplexes
while verbiage accrues
Watch him how he digresses
swerves through ‘fast verse’ drive-thrus

Bestowed a second chance

He hid out in life
fearful of all strife

Engrossed amply, had a ball
dinked around without clues
lead no worthwhile life at all
thought Life here to amuse

Then rosy hued vigor drained
he veered off course, pace dropped
a purpose no longer feigned
Pretense gone. Thank God, flopped

Then bestowed a second chance
to pull his weight, not just prance

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

Those topangued not so easily harangued

Southern California:

One seeming seamless mall
with roars ‘cariphonia’
and merchandising gall

Of this consists its essence:
Ever fleeting new thrills!
Where to escape its presence?
High up in dusty hills!

The clear-eyed who wisely topangued
won’t so easily be harangued

+)
-‘cariphonia’ = the sound of cars in heavy traffic
-topangued = to move up in the hills of Topanga, away from LA

 

If not seen on a screen then it hasn’t really been seen

If it does not go
off with ding, ring or ting
or flashing lights show
then it ain’t the real thing!

If by naked eye seen
it ain’t observing
while when shown on a screen
real, worth preserving!

Smart phone electronics
never brooks contradiction
though they impair mnemonics
cares not for restriction

O, how we vociferate!
New tech dominates
as uses proliferate
while hardly liberates!

Hey, Thucydides, that was then. This is now and how!

“Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.”
-Thucydides (c.460 B.C.– c.400 B.C.)

If restraint implies ‘voluntary’ restraint would we these days recognize something so over the top quaint?

Yes, in Antiquity
but regarded now
as mere obliquity
Here is why & how:

Today’s absence of restraint
sustains mindless shopping
above all for more war paint
unjust wars not stopping

Fans fiery fire
absent qualms
by our Empire
dropping bombs

While voices of restraint
raised rarely, echo faint