Upon a slanted soapbox

This is how I rant

 

Upon a Slanted Soapbox

by jack

 

 

Often I wonder what life is about

 Should we look in the distance or turn it around?

  Would it be wise to question ways of the land?

   On a wide open prairie so majestic and grand

    Or gaze far behind to see where we’ve been

     Who stood there waiting when it did begin?

      What is the meaning each day that we’re here?

       Are we to provide a smile and a tear?

        Create the words that will someday describe

         The colors that fill in the early sunrise

          Cultivate planted and nature tuned seeds

           Allowing the growth of the worlds desperate needs 

            Setting the path and making the way

             For the future to invent a much brighter day

              Carving the roast, saying the toast

               Being whatever is needed the most

                It certainly seems like a very large task

                 To constantly smile while wearing a mask

                  To paint both a portrait and a kitchen wall

                   While cleaning our oceans before they do fall

                    Take heed of these words for they soon are to be

                     The only remaining bits floating at sea

                      If a few dollars here and a few dollars there

                       Are paid out the cleaning crews begin right here

                        Our wings they are spread to end all pollution

                         The flight of a hardworking, straight line solution

                           I come not to preach but to speak on behalf

                           Of all of our children and the aftermath

                            To the storyline leading the whole time it’s sending

                             We’re hoping to provide a great happy ending

                              Come take my hand and let’s walk the fields

                               And realize all that the golden grain yields

                                Yet greed is a hunger that pangs at our gut

                                 More money, more credit; till more is a rut

                                  Carved in the earth to throw it a curve

                                   All you big wasters, well you’ve got your nerve

                                    You’re choking the flowers, hands on their stems

                                      Killing the fish on which we depend

  Coughing up skies with your breath and your fumes

                                         It’s not like its Sunday and we’re the cartoons

                                          Where happiness comes with the stroke of a pen

                                            And life isn’t hampered again and again      

                                             Ripping out tress for factories tall

         Only to bankrupt them letting them fall

          But your pockets are lined, full to the brim

           With every last dollar you’re able to skim

            What do you care if the world is unclean?

             For all generations, the future will seem

              Tired and poor with lawns in despair

               Nothing to eat, no one to care

                How can I say this and still remain nice

                 Like getting acquainted, breaking the ice

                  Stop while you can; put on the brakes

                   Covet the future for goodness sakes

                    Not just to put more in your bank

                                                          Throw away money, you’ve no one to thank

                      And bring about change of a wonderful kind

                       And rest well at night with good peace of mind

                        So now you think that I rant and I rave

                          And my smiley face flag is all that I wave

                           But the truth of the fact and the facts of the matter

                            Is each day your wallets get fatter and fatter

                             Death of the planet looms on the horizon

                              So if you don’t fix it we all will just die then

                               And when there’s no cash for your coffers and vaults

                                The funny thing is it’ll be all of your faults

 

Author's Note

Thank you for reading

Reviews

[TL Boehm]

I appreciate the technical skills in this work. The presentation and the couplets are finely tuned. There is a wonderful visceral flow to this - I can hear it as I read it - and it hits home with a one two punch. We get so wrapped up in the dollar we don't realize we are suffocating slowly. Well penned.

[Jack...]

Thank you so much my new friend. I appreciate you stopping by and reading this poem. This is not my usual faire, but I step on a tack every once in a while and something like this comes out. I appreciate your kind words.

[Frieda P]

Holy Poet Jack! You're like a finely tuned poetry machine, one after the other of pure excellence, I love the formatting of this one, heck, I love it all, perfectionism! This one slaps you upside the head, and there's no room to come up for air! Bravo.

[Jack...]

Thanks Frieda, the entire things was supposed to keep slanting, but I guess the margin got in the way. Damn margins.

[Frieda P]

That's happened to me too, I think it works as emphasis though, makes it feel a bit askew, like the subject matter, nothing in a perfect straight line. My pleasure always...

[Robbie~xoxo~]

Amazing write!...we do need to preserve and not indulge in such pollution. You have written this with careful precision, a well crafted piece... Nicely structured message, flows wonderfully.~xo~

[Jack...]

Thanks Robbie. Just one of my ecological rants.

[Robbie~xoxo~]

Nicely done. :)