Now and Then and Now Again...

1

Though still within our infancy,

we strive and thrive, but woefully 

we flash and flaunt our 'primacy',

display our trophies pridefully.

 

Our terra firma ecstasy

destroys the planet's harmony,

lays waste to life within the sea,

and all in name of vanity.

Who dares our spheroid's symmetry

by doubting Nature's regnancy

defying laws, like gravity,

affirms a fatal fallacy…

for, centered on the 'world of we',

we feed our vain insanity

on thoughts beyond eternity -

seems strange when looked at cosmically.

Perchance there is no remedy

for those in shadow's prophecy -

unless we handle skillfully,

as clay we'll pay the penalty.

                            2

The Moguls rule with cruel decree,

control the crowds like puppetry,

pursuing greed addictively

with no accountability.

The winds, they reek of Royalty

(that's bathed in  suds of treachery)

and blow across the peasantry

left gasping in their pungency.

The Queen, so steeped in snobbery,

sits, preening proud Her pedigree,

on throne of ash and ebony

while sipping Sekt immodestly;

to sate Her Regal Majesty,

a caviar clad canapé

is served with golden cutlery

by maidens bent submissively. 

 

The King is bailed from bankruptcy

by Knaves who hoodwink artfully

the down-and-outer evictee

who wallows in their lenity.

Forsooth, the Money Monarchy

ordains the dollar dynasty

portending highway robbery

by Peacocks plumed in finery,

for Jesters and the Fools agree

to dabble in duplicity

while stripping masses witlessly.

Long live the peon's penury!

                           3

To justify the oddity

that one plus one is sometimes three,

one reaches to theodicy,

takes paths of circularity.

In bygone trials of travesty

the doubters, draped in blasphemy,

endured the pain and agony

inflicted by the papacy.

Inspired by the Trinity

fanatics bent cosmology

in geocentric fantasy

while Bruno burned for heresy;

and aged  women, fruitlessly

(while racked and wrenched), begged clemency

from justice framed in infamy,

but set ablaze for witchery.

That epoch of credulity

(when savants fostered sorcery

and practiced ancient alchemy)

arose in dark age quackery

as clerics dripping piety

(while raging, raving rabidly)

pervaded thralled society

with callous inhumanity;

'repent', they bellowed, 'verily,

forsake the world's iniquity,

live lives of want and chastity,

and give your gelt to God through me'

                            4

The Masters make a mockery 

of freedom and democracy

by holding down the uppity,

released from shackled slavery,

now fettered in a factory

else strewn across the Bowery,

still chained in bonds of bigotry,

immersed in seas of poverty.

And colliers, tapping balefully

in sunken-mine solemnity,

yet thrum a mournful monody

some call the digger's elegy.

To children, pale and raggedy

(behind a day of drudgery),

the boss man, oh so gallantly,

presents a penny, niggardly;

though some are fed (belatedly),

their eyes recede in apathy 

while bellies swell, inflatedly,

with mothers watching, wretchedly.

 

When met with health adversity

or broken bone infirmity,

the pauper dangles helplessly

with no  insurance policy;

and those  engulfed in lunacy

are ailing blobs left floating free

through psycho-dream obscurity -

a dire death row odyssey.

Forgetting mankind's unity,

our rich and poor dichotomy

breeds empty doomed finality,

eventual nihility.

                            5

Just as in days of chivalry,

wild warriors fighting forcefully

bring freedom neath the gallows tree

while blending blood and burgundy

to toast the slaughtered enemy,

or else convince the colony

to cede with smile on bended knee

and yield her diamonds, silk and tea.

At first they call the cavalry

and then again the infantry,

so proudly primped in panoply,

and armed from finest armory

(embraced in hands so tenderly),

inflict benign atrocity -

but soon atomic weaponry

will cancel our posterity.

                            6

Misusing high technology

(to feed the face of gluttony)

depletes our Rock of energy,

now slowly dying thermally.

Our gadgets breathing CFC

fuel ozone holes' immensity 

while cloud bursts, raining acidly,

wilt woods in their entirety,

and rivers, tainted chemically,

polluted biologically,

refill our cups methodically

and drown our souls organically.

Adjusting genes mechanically 

may well blot out the bumble bee

annulling fruits' fecundity,

but brings big bucks reliably.

We wager perpetuity

to revel  momentarily

in shadow-like obscurity

ignoring the futility,

but if we bet unknowingly 

on fickle fate's contingency

and thereby act haphazardly

we're doomed to lose the lottery.

                            7

The mildly mad bureaucracy

so often lacks coherency

when raping rules abundantly

but offers no apology. 

They paint the past in reverie

when, slyly comes the tendency 

to take away our privacy

which paves the way to tyranny.

With earlobes lurking furtively

that listen surreptitiously,

and eyeballs peering doggedly,

we've lost our mental sovereignty,

and those who dare to disagree

must hide away in secrecy

else perch in penitentiary

with water board anxiety.

                           8

Yes, sans responsibility,

our marble in this galaxy

will crumble in catastrophe

ere ever reaching puberty…

Reviews

[alanwgraham]

This is a fantastic work covering an incredible range of man's relationship with each other and the earth. I think the first verse is the strongest but I just wonder whether the message might get lost in the sheer length of the poem - for example the section about the moguls seemed a bit out of place. Well done though - lots of good ideas, well expressed.
Regards,
Alan

[Terry O'Leary]

Thank you, Alan.
You're probably right. I don't write very often and sometimes when I actually do, I sometimes tend to ramble...
like, 'when it rains, it pours'...
Terry

[Valentine]

Whew...might have been better in 2 or 3 poems.. I liked the message in 4 the best. Valentine

[Terry O'Leary]

Thank you, Valentine... as I've mentioned before, sometimes get a bit looong!!!
Terry

[D Connolly]

well we think we're so smart, don't we?? OK, so first, this is LONG. I had to brace myself for it, man, really. 2nd opinion, it is brilliant. I'm not just saying that because it's obvious that you've put some work in here, I REALLY THINK IT'S GOOD. You've started from the beginning and worked your way through our history as a planet, and included politics, geo-engineering, religion, technology, war for profit, and the cosmos. I'm sure I've missed something... And then tied it up nicely by bringing it back to the beginning, restating that we are, in fact, still in our infancy! Yet, we think we know so much. And those people who are paying attention and saying something about all of this BS "must hide away in secrecy"; if they aren't a victim of waterboarding, they are shrugged off and laughed at as "conspiracy theorists" (I have to stop talking about the correlation between chem-trails and the reduction of our pollinators before people really start thinking I'm nuts, but seriously HOW CAN YOU NOT NOTICE THIS S**T??? They want us starving and relying on them for survival; NWO is real... OK I'm done). It was lengthy, but I think it really has to be, because you covered a lot of ground here. WELL DONE

[Terry O'Leary]

Thank you for your kind words, D.
The world is going crazy, and the US is leading the way...
Terry

[Beccy]

As this poem pretty much says it all; I feel only the need to comment on the poem itself and observe it is most cleverly crafted and a pure joy to read.

Beccy.

[Terry O'Leary]

Thank you, Beccy. You are very kind!
Terry