In Sickness and Health, Poverty and Wealth

Another commentary on politics and society - in spoken word format

 

In Sickness and Health, Poverty and Wealth

 

Old boy pols center, left and right,

in sickness and in health,

in poverty and wealth,

the boys of D.C. hold the cards.

It’s hard to wait, to enervate

our bored stiff minds

with vanilla choices.

Our inner voices

call for more than oat meal or oat bran,

more than hot cakes with jam,

more than elephants

with donkey brothers

and independent others shouting

more of the same, the same, the same.

 

Pull a lever, pop a chad

with no hope of ever changing,

the range of motion never ranging

past an inch of middle.

Hey diddle the cow cried

before he died of moon-staring,

the cat and fiddle not caring

there’s no repairing

the earthquake fissure

between the haves and the nots,

the rich dish stealing the spoon

as we swoon in blind hunger,

sick with apathetic starvation

in our gold-paved split nation.

 

Reviews

[J. Hampton]

Genious.....
and entertaining too !
Somehow the nursery rhymes are sooo ......apropos .
I can't copy & paste any of this without the rest of it....
Love this stuff..

The picture made it even better...priceless !!!

Brings to mind...
" A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways"
~ James 1:8
hot ticket...this is !!

Blessssssssssssssss

[Ryan Gilroy]

Often and far too infrequently it takes the rabble-rousers and demagouges to show us who the true patriots are to give more the fight and show us that no matter what happens ever time we settle for less then evil we can still carry more evil amongst us. I do like your piece seeing it's a political piece created with an apolitical slant seeing that it has no guise behind, no references to leanings or ideas held but it reeps of a poetic truth of a system that creates a balanced playing field with those who want the game to be stacked for them and them alone.

[Eric]

Odd sensation reading this. Political subject matter wrestles the beauty of the language. The tension is like a violin string pulled tight; lovely music with a message.

[Raef C. Boylan]

You've put an original slant on the 'Hey Diddle Diddle' analogical references, and woven them in well with your political statements. The thought and effort that has gone into this writing is clear.

"sick with apathetic starvation
in our gold-paved split nation" - so rich in liberties, we (the West) can afford to throw them away...? You may seem privileged to countries suffering famine and drought etc, but the percentage of population who actually vote at election in those countries is a lot higher than in the U.S or U.K, right? Is the "split" between Republicans and Democrats?
"and independent others shouting
more of the same, the same, the same." - are these people who create their own parties and stand, but don't get anywhere because they aren't much different/don't focus on the right issues, therefore not receiving enough support nationally?

This poem is a good read: well-written and entertaining, with an important message.
Nice job.

Thanks for posting this.

[Jessica Standifird]

I love the picture with this piece. The flow of this one is fun, and the message dead on. I miss reading your work!!

[Siege Powell]

i love you.....*ahem* i mean i love this poem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! holy cow i'm going to share this is that okay? wow! amen!!!!

[Tomás Ó C..]

I love the language in this!!

[C. Harter Amos]

I expect this is a realistic view of politics in a country on the down-slide. Unfortunately, idealism is a thing of the past. The last election showed the ugly truth of how our presidents are elected. It amazes me that Paris Hilton's news gets more press coverage than the upcoming election. Sometimes I wonder if we still even have a fence to sit on!. - Mimi.

[Gandré]

ha ha I loved Tony's comment revolution in america that s horror pure.

loved your poem, the message is undeniable.

[Gary H]

Thought this was fantastic. Politics seem an everlasting argument that never determines the fate of anything for very long. I guess though - and looking at your sign above - that we can't sit on the fence as nothing happens at all.
Oh yeah, this situation is the same in the UK as the US, perhaps worse here as we are rather too fond of your leaders!