More Passing Thoughts

Lies

Lies are the potent tools of modern life

Their degree of use 

Is an intricately woven pattern of deception

At the least dangerous level

Is the Barefaced Lie

This is simple to recognise

And brings the user most often contempt

A folly easily detectable

A more treacherous level is the Rogue Distortion

Characterised by the cunning use

Of truth itself

To encourage belief in what is false

And designed to achieve specific social aims

An example would be 

Will Smith helped hospitals reduce waiting time

By blowing his brains out

A far more common level of lying

Is the Utopian Fantasy Fabrication

More commonly known as the advertisement

For this level

Human drives are given fulfilment

Sex, greed and the lust for power are examples

The UFF is an extremely subtle and cunning level of lying

Wondrous outcomes are promised

With little more than faked visual evidence

Your Aladdin’s lamp is your money or your Visa card

Getting you to buy despite the cost is the aim

Improbability is made the norm

An example might be given

Of a sheep 

Who counts humans while trying to sleep

Now this brings us to the most forceful lie of all

It is that which generates war

The so called fight for freedom

To protect our way of life

To keep our land safe and secure

For this lie to succeed

The enemy is always found across the waters

Dresses differently

Eats different food and commits crimes we have invented

We fight this war for peace

An inconvenient word that one 

It’s the modus operandi of this lie

It is not used until after the oilfields have been captured

And the convenient tyrant has been removed

War is big business

Let the wheels of weaponry roll

And make sure the guns are loaded

So there you have it

The lies of the land

The ways reality is bent for personal gain

But a word of warning

They can stalk you, these lies

Amidst your gullibility

Tick tock, the truth of the world is not set in rock

And savage deception can impale you with shock

Liars’ deeds will creep up on you 

Like spectres in the night

And shake you into anguish and tremulous fright

Regarding the words on this page

When your mental paralysis comes down to analysis

Have you learned from me the vital truth?

Me, who dances with your awareness

Wearing the mask of creativity

Will you now honour all strictly truthful schemes?

Or will lies forever haunt your dystopian dreams?

A Prim And Proper Man

Anthony Manfred-Smythe was a prim and proper man

He followed the customs of the dot.orgs he knew

With a very cooperative plan

He was a member of the Business Alliance

And met its tedious rules

With great respect and compliance

His political ethos was to the right

A well tried family tradition

And a cause he pursued with delight

Change was never the order of his day

Preserve, reserve, conserve

Were the deeds he brought into play

Investment for Smythe was blue-chip

Unless he went gilt-edged

No shooting by him from the hip

Church was a place where he found grace

The routine there

Made him feel remote from disgrace

He also spent time on the board

Of a prominent business firm

Where his status was ensured

On top of this Smythe found healthy fatigue

Belonging to a sporting club

The Roosters of Rugby League

Thus had conformity made him perform

He loved the Queen and every day wore a tie

Working always towards the norm 

Until one day came we now can say

That brought an infinite change

For calamity came his way

It made him review the worth of things

To question previous values

With the thinking power that brings

It was the greatest upheaval

For mankind

Since the birth of time primeval

Mores changed with convention a thing of the past

When the COVID-19 virus came

The old world vanished fast

Life was now evolutionary

Behaviour being swept away

In a manner revolutionary

Soon nothing remained of Smythe

Not a trace of what once was important

Was left in his world to survive

By the time this star was to meet his death

Social values had radically changed

Coinciding with his last breath

Dead bodies were found where once mere trivia appeared

And the wreckage of broken dreams

Was the last thing left to be feared

The Perfect Fool

The perfect fool knows the answer

Before he asks every question

To protect his nation from political lies

Vote informal is his suggestion

If he wants to find true love in his life

He will look in the Yellow Pages

When he seeks a bargain the adman supplies

The free bonus is all that engages

He trusts as reliable information

The stories he finds in the Press

He easily believes the loan shark’s lies

And will give him his address

He thinks that oven-baked oysters

Are a cure for cancer

He treats the words of the CIA

As facts from an honest romancer

He thinks the only way to find peace

Is to start another war

And that the riddle of the Sphinx 

Is a Disney fiction what’s more

As far as we know the perfect fool

Believes the earth is flat

So a conman offered him a ticket to the edge

But he was too busy for that

Instead he built a circus

Using other people’s money

But the police came along and closed it down

As it wasn’t even funny

Undeterred, even though it’s quite absurd

He decided to build a casino

But the criminals laundered their money there

For less than a ticket to Reno

Thus nothing went right for the perfect fool

So his days were clearly numbered

All he had left was parliament

And with him now it’s encumbered

Hero

He now seems almost a myth after all these years

One of those figures born to be significant

The kind you might read about in reputable journals

That wasn’t how he came to my attention

No fanfare

No flamboyant preludes to meeting

It was surreptitious

In fact I can’t remember when our togetherness began

Somehow he just came to be there

Destined to inspire

The details of his life

Now leap out of the past

He left school at fifteen

A job with his father in a furniture store

A hard existence but the heavy lifting

Gave him a strong body

The Great Depression brought stress to his life

He had to find another source of income

Radio attracted his adventurous spirit

He taught himself how to replace valves and wires

And declared himself a radio mechanic

That calling was an unfulfilled dream

So he went into building houses

Self taught

No qualifications

Just a man of his time

Meeting challenges with realistic awareness

And moderate success

To enjoy stoically an extended life

That constantly challenged his strength

He taught me so much about the world’s ways

With advice from the wells of experience

You may wonder at the title of this verse

Why was this man a hero?

It is the name I would rather

What else should I say of my father?

A Dream

Once I had a dream

I remember it well

As the characters were so clear

I was alone with a friend

Not a passing acquaintance

But someone I held dear

It was a troubled time in that sleeping place

Spasms of grief

Are my lasting impression

I turned to my friend for sympathy

Torn and forlorn

In a fit of destructive depression

Poverty and loneliness 

Endlessly tortured my mind

In ways

That should not be a part 

Of life’s continuous grind

I desperately needed support

To bring an end to my strife

The dream was an endless torment

Where misery was rife 

That world was dark

And the trouble stark

As I cried aloud in anguish

I knew at first hand

The kind of pain

That only love can vanquish

She smiled at me

In her caring way

And gave me gentle support

I smiled back

In that world of my mind

That the real world tends to distort

Those smiles were the essence

Of peace and contentment

And my desperate spirits rose

To create the peace and wondrous joy

A troubled man rarely knows

Then I awoke

To a world that seems

In desperate need of the kind of life

You find only in your dreams

I asked myself

Why is it so

That dreams should have such finality?

So now when awake I strive to make

Love an endless part of reality

Success

Success it is a valued thing

Revered from Pole to Pole

The way it’s judged is deceptive

Questionable on the whole

Some people will do anything

As long as they can win

They’ll put their faith in any deed

Even if it is a sin

The market place is a combat zone

Where social bonds often fail

As rivals stretch morality

Just to make a sale

The upwardly mobile pragmatist

Is another dismal case

He’ll stab in the back any rival

In his quest for a higher place

Loyalty to a political leader

Is proclaimed eternal

Until allies destroy their friends

With consequences infernal

What is the end of all of this

When you get to the top of the tree?

Will you be bound by the bonds of guilt

Or will your conscience set you free?

royciebaby