Still More Thoughts

Statistics

Have you heard?
There’s a secret code adrift in the aether
Used by the shady ones
From the CEOs of banks to devious politicians
Embellishing their lies with apparent virtue
What is it?
You are bound to ask
Now that I’ve stirred your interest
Here is my answer
Don’t spread this knowledge around
As it may be to your advantage
If the villains don’t know you know
I speak of statistics: yes, numerical data
Collected and analysed under the guise of truth
To present a falsely representative sample
Now I understand your skepticism
Concerning my views
Especially if you happen to harness statistics honestly
So I will actually use them to put my case
Let us take unemployment
My point here is
Out of work figures are deliberately biassed for political reasons
Many jobless people are simply not counted in the data
In this year’s figures, for example,
Where are the retired?
Where are the full-time parents?
Where are the full-time carers?
Where are the students?
Where are the permanently disabled?
Where are the professionals or others travelling?
Where are the discouraged job seekers?
Where are the prisoners or other institutionalised people?
Very many people in these categories would love to work
It’s a large number and it’s not recorded in the unemployment data
This example should at least make you question statistics
But alas! If you do, these days you will indeed be far above average

That Man Merely Waves A Book

Australian Politics 2021

There he is
On a stage exposed in the public square
Gathered before him
Is a multitude of avid listeners eager to learn from his words
Minds in tune
Expectancy aroused
Desperately anxious to learn their destiny
There’s a breathless hush at the close tonight
Tension ripples through the air
For ruin has reared its ugly head in recent days
Fires have disfigured the land and ended many lives
Storms have brought destruction so only the heroes survive
Floods have ravaged the rivers and swept many farms away
This as years of drought have passed while vultures romp and play
And then the heat started rising, oppressing, distressing all
So much to fear; danger near; the nation seemed headed for a fall
So everybody listens
Leaning forward in expectation
The pause is pregnant
Indeed it is regnant
What is the plan to save those vastly endangered lives?
Steady now
Here it comes
Matters of import coming; are they really listening?
Yes
Ready for the answer to their desperate, dangerous fears
Oh no!
Woe is thee with certainty

That man merely waves a book

The Emperor Has No Clothes

O the wonders of technology!
It is the genie of the lamp
Because of its power
Mere mortals walk in the sanctuary of the gods
With the application of scientific knowledge
For practical causes
We all are triumphant beyond our wildest dreams
Man flies despite Icarus
Walks upon the moon
Has replaced broken hearts
Defied death with vaccination
And built towers far above the gloom of everyday existence
Thus the Emperor holds forth
Promising solutions
That rest on past laurels, to dangers looming
Such words he shares with us
Promises of further magic
There are more things in heaven and earth,
Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy*
Mystical foretelling
Of wondrous remedies to future impending doom
His words sound so fine
But O!
As I listen
I am torn apart by irreconcilable doubt
A device to save you from the inferno of the bush alight
Is pie in the tortured sky
Apparatus tomorrow to counter a Noah’s flood
Is a castle in Spain about to crumble to the ground
Heat as fierce as the fires of Hell
Cooled by devices has a non existent solution
Safety in storms that torture the vulnerable earth
Is one of these many delusions that belong in Bedlam
All eggs yet to be invented, in one basket

Yes the Emperor has no clothes

*Hamlet 1.5.167-8

As Justice Beats Its Drum

Now we shall proclaim
Things won’t be the same
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

On climate we will focus
To end the hocus pocus
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

We will curb the role
Of dirty dangerous coal
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

We will stop the pranks
Of greedy treacherous banks
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

We’ll mend poor peoples’ trousers
Give them access to houses
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

So no rich rogue relaxes
We will make him pay his taxes
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

We’ll expose the ugly lies
Every media boss denies
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

We’ll deflate the lucrative wheels
Of the back room’s suspect deals
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

We’ll rewrite the ugly book
Written by each neolib crook
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

We’ll put an end to war
And the profits from weapons what’s more
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

We’ll incur a splendid ovation
When we rid the world of starvation
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

With the Flag of Fairness unfurled
We’ll create a heroic new world
We shall overcome
As justice beats its drum

Filial Affection

Away with you you lying son of a lady dog
Why are the masses forced to endure you?
I will admit you hold an important position
And strut around like someone from the Hall Of Fame
Infamy would be a better word
You turn yourself into knots trying to do a deal
All the while pretending it doesn’t matter
Ignominy is your way of living and fraud your modus operandi
While your self praise
Levitates around the firmament like violin music
You never admit a mistake
Although you err more often than G W Bush at full speed
Always an excuse bounces off your tongue as if it were valid
While you cunningly put blame on someone else when it suits you
Your friends are always very rich
Some of them mere dark shadows funding your bank account
As a reward for your chicanery
Your system works so well however
You’ve risen up the social scale like nobody’s business
Outdone your rivals with fake camaraderie
Outbidding them when the chips are down aided by insider trading
No day passes free of your mendacious coups
You’re an opportunist
Who makes friends purely because they are easy to deceive
Your ambition is made of sterner stuff
You’re always on the go, investing here, selling off there
Like the rising sun you know no bounds
While any sign of morality is just an afterthought to tide things over
Until your next coup
And that’s why politics is your game and victory is your destiny
Even though you are just a pain in the you know where
But hey Dad. Can you spare me a grand for my speeding fine?

One Minute To Midnight

The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back
to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it. — Omar Khayyam.

The writing is on the wall
Not just a passing reference
It’s inscribed by the Hand of Truth
Vested interests now rule our endangered planet
With deliberate, unflinching, ruthless single mindedness
To preserve the deadly, sordid, profitable past
Though tempests may rend our world into hopeless pieces
Droughts may wither our futures on the vine
Fire may turn our destinies into pathetic ashes
Or floods may sweep away our previous existence
Still the inane words, or is it insane?
Batter our ears in the guise of catch cries
Such as incentivise or jobs jobs jobs
But can you hear the ticking of the clock?
O how it echoes in the empty halls
Once blessed with good will and humanity
Reality is a menace to some
Whose minds are distorted by self interest
You can still hear the hum of their factories creating
Still see the vast loaded leviathans, like wild beasts
Emerging from their mines
Petrol-driven cars still flow in spates from their assembly lines
Bovine multitudes still flaunt their existence in rising temperatures
The air still reeks of toxins without redress to the culprits
And islands disappear under a lascivious ocean
Past, present and future are but an illusion said the scientist
That is food for thought, but note this please
Cinderella just ran past me
Down those steps of Congress leaving her slipper behind
Lucky girl!
So much better to run into the grasp of an evil stepmother
Than into the doom of a monstrous destiny
Grimly waiting for all of us as the planet warms

Humpty Dumpty Falls Again

It’s happened
The Egg has fallen again
It’s no wonder
He’s so stupid that fellow, not organic either
He loves walls as they make him feel important
And above all else he is a climate skeptic
Running terrible risks to put his case to the world
Marching up and down that structure spruiking nonsense
About protecting the regions from job loss and bankruptcy
And that’s not all
He’s been elected deputy leader of his farm
By cunningly ingratiating himself with the farmer saying
Cages are good, cheaper to run and will foster a strong economy
Terrible thoughts really
Even though economically rational
Because claustrophobia had recently swept through all the cages
What else emerged from Humpty’s tiny brain
He said the fear of confinement would disappear
As long as they kept on laying
So there you are
Humpty Dumpty the loudmouth who put profit over science
Prince of Fools, idiot with faulty balance
Paraded on high like a loquacious politician
He had to be headed for a fall
It came with a loud crash, like some of the recent thunder
Then triple egg was called
But to no avail
As all the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Didn’t want to put Humpty together again

The Winner

Verry Elleegant has just
won the 2021 Melbourne Cup

Flemington Racecourse is a part of our world
That comes to our attention
Especially on one haunting Tuesday every year
On that day, there is a winner everyone notices
After that victory a celebration rings around the world
We ordinary mortals observing
Share the excitement for a few entrancing moments
There but for fortune go I we think
As we walk with empathy amidst the winner’s acclaim
But Tout passe, tout lasse, tout casse say the people
Who make French atomic submarines and lose contracts to America**
A shattering loss…
Victory after all, can be such a fleeting thing
And for every victory, by definition there must be losers
For today’s race there were twenty-three
Some were rewarded for being close to victory
But most were like me – losers and unrewarded
Dwell on me for a moment and let me explain a little more
For I am a loser
I no longer work as a teacher
Because I am classified as too old yet I can still think and write poems
I am a loser
As a wife left me and forced the sale of a house worth riches today
I am a loser
Because my car passed away and I cannot afford another
I am a loser
Because I love dogs and cannot keep one because of strata laws
I am a loser
Since the government reduced my pension sans just reason
Only one more thing left to say
I am a winner in spite of everything
After nearly nine decades living, here on Melbourne Cup day,
I am still a member of the human race

**Everything passes, everything becomes worn out, everything disintegrates France has recently lost a multi billion dollar submarine contract with Australia. America got that contract.

royciebaby