Yet More Poems

Science

Beware!

Science exists

It is operating now

A danger to our very existence as functioning corporations

Threatening our tomorrows

With destructive evidence

That will turn our mission statements

Into catastrophic foretelling of insolvency

To arms fearless corporate allies!

We must turn this tide of dangerous awareness

Into profitable unreality

Think!

Reach out!

Invent mythology to fulfil our dreams

Earth has been growing warm by nature for millennia

Coal fire causes wind and cools the planet

Lightning will destroy electric cars

Wildfires are created by flammable birds-nests

Floods are caused by bad drainage

Storms are a conspiracy by meteorologists

The virus will magically disappear

Vaccination was invented by Hitler to kill the Jews

Isolation is a Communist plot so back to work

That’s it then

Down with research-based knowledge!

We must stop this deadly understanding

Now

Or the way of life we know and love

Will disappear

In a labyrinth of comprehension

So viva the market!

Protect the masses from knowledge

That will block, stall, hold back the wheels of industry

Let us make sure today

Our golden destiny

Our future, is away on business

Any Man’s Death Diminishes Me

No man is an island entire of itself…any man’s death 

diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. 

And therefore never send to know for whom 

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

From Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

John Donne 

COVID-19 is a fact of life

It will be always with us they said

People will die no matter what we do

So let us get back to business

And accept the reality of mortality

Now

Before our world of industry crumbles

Into insignificance

End the lockdown before it is too late 

Flowers they added

Flowers for the victims

Are an appropriate investment

To mollify critics of our doing away with isolation too soon

They will be an adequate gesture 

To keep the wheels of industry spinning

The economy healthy

And restore the beauty of our existence

Newspaper obituaries too are certainly relevant

Conspicuous public sympathy

To help the market return to glory

Flourish again despite the roll call of death

I believe my father would have condemned the pitiless greed

Had he not been infected during the hasty easing of constraints 

And survived the virus

For me

He was my angel

O how he suffered

And O how his death diminishes me!

He rests now

Forever

In a cemetery created by champions of commerce

Silence

Silence can be a secret heinous thing

Destructive in its subtle way

Created by words that don’t exist

It may protect crime or condone folly

Making the silent observer an accomplice of evil

It can have more power than the wail of a siren

Or a scream in the terror of the night

Fostering criminal deeds

By leaving them unnoticed

War crimes, for example,

Have been known to create medals

As part of the ecru scheme of things

While other sanctified hostile warriors live on

In the heroic glory of death

Our lack of awareness

So often is linked to such matters

As we condone by ignoring

Yet all is not lost

The other day a political capo came before a crowd

Seeking approval

He even clapped himself

Partly because he secretly feared condemnation

The dream of an empire he offered…

Outposts throughout the world

Spreading, endorsing, promoting a chosen way of life

Superior to all other forms of existence

O how wondrous it was!

While he waited breathless for a response

Hordes of faces turned awry

And silence thundered

Memories Are Made Of This

A song of the Fifties, sung especially by Dean Martin

Time is a catalyst for memory

When you are old

As I am

The past is a friend

That comes to visit you often

It knocks on your door in an amicable way

And suddenly they are there

Companions, loves, siblings, mentors

All the helpful elements of your existence

From days gone by

But there is a difference when they come back

These time ignored figures

Something strange

Somehow your enemies are absent

They are lurking somewhere round a corner

Out of sight

Some of them gave you Hell

Rivalled your promotion

Stole your home perhaps

Cheated you in a game

One may even have seduced your wife

But now they are nowhere to be seen

You have ridden through the pain of their onslaughts

Onto the plains of awareness

Where all that matters is your continued existence in peace

And that is why those demons

Have crumbled into the dust of irrelevance…

To remember the joys of the past

Is to be born again

Still with the energy of those bygone times

You can climb the same mountains

Walk down the same roads

Make the same mistakes

When it doesn’t really matter

So you can walk into your last tomorrow with a smile

With today lifted above its tribulations by the past

Words

Words are ephemeral things

Not always to be believed

I mean even these words of mine

Unless they are vindicated by evidence

Take Exhibit A for example

You can think about his name for yourself

He is powerful

Has coordinated access to the media

Is interviewed often

Has a seat at conference tables around the world

Likes to be seen with the common man 

In his own country

Often wears a protective helmet

Recorded by cameras

Shakes hands with other wearers of the same headgear

Also recorded

Cradles babies publicly once every four years

Goes to church noticeably

Hangs medals around winners’ necks

Cuts ribbons

Is excused from lockdowns

Is driven everywhere by a chauffeur in a limousine

And lives in an impressive mansion funded by the people

His latest words for your analysis:

Our country leads the world with equal opportunity

Poverty doesn’t exist

Education is freely available to all

We fight for freedom wherever the need arises

God save the Queen

Exhibit B is me

I wrote this poem

These are my words for your consideration

Yours is the right to judge

royciebaby