Yet More Elderly Melodies

Shock Jocks

Wisdom is a fleeting thing
Very scarce these days
Even though radio guiding lights constantly say they have it
They babble on interminably
According to the plan
Mouthing ultra-conservative blimpish discourse
As dictated by their masters
So advocates of social change are communists
The climate is not warming
Foreigners are flooding our nation
Selected countries threaten our borders
There, reactionary politicians are interviewed favourably
While advocates of necessary change are given short shrift
Take that fake but influential guru for instance
Words flow from his lips in a torrent
Violent repartee
Decrying virtue and condoning acquisitiveness
Or that other person of unwarranted fame
Leading her listeners
Towards condemnation of righteousness
They are so rich these obedient servants of greed
Rewarded greatly
For defaming chosen victims
Offensive they are
Deliberately so, and provocative
As they do the thinking for mind damaged followers
So the days pass for these prattlers
As they fill the air with claptrap, inanity, irrationality
Turning each day into a clatter of doom
They chatter on, pawns of their masters
Who pay them so well
That is the way of things in our present kakistocracy
There is only one solution
An answer to end the imbecility
The true way to change the tragic folly
It is education
The best remaining remedy to save humanity
So fund those schools and bring about the change now

On Defence

“War is a racket.” Smedley D. Butler 1935

So
You are investing in defence
Huge amounts
That means you need enemies present or future
Let me see then, where are they?
We have a current problem: peace has broken out
What can we do about that?
I know: turn to the media
Border protection is a nice term to imply a threat
Accounts of intruding ships is also an effective ploy
And you can set up treaties “To protect our way of life”
That’s a neat implied danger
Contrasting social systems are fruitful links to fear
Communism for the West is a golden potential danger
As fascism once was
Which leads us to history, so useful!
Bring on the war documentaries
Hitler is dead but lives on as an example of jeopardy
So too does Stalin
Then there are inventions: the latest triumphs of modernity
Atomic submarines; drones; supersonic aircraft
Wondrous triumphs we’ve got to have in case of war
Make them now
Be ready
Invest or you’ll be left behind
Conquered because of your deadly inertia

Weapons of war are big business, at times the biggest
So lucrative for a privileged few
And there is so often a market, somewhere
Terrorists get their weapons from someone
Ah yes! It’s a long, long way to Tipperary
But that’s where the money is

Xenophobia

Listen to her
Ranting against immigrants
Like someone from the Ku Klux Klan
What a tiny, distorted mind she reveals when she speaks
Carefully ignoring reality
To promote her own significance
Words for her are weapons of deceit
Beckoning the followers who vote for her
To build castles of pretence in the troubled air
Can you hear her?
The fraudulence?
The chicanery?
The cunning?
The craft?
She is a whistleblower with a tainted whistle
An orator from the dark side of the planet
A disciple of racist rogues
This person given the right to speak
By the bigotry of others
Who chose her to taint a public arena
She is today by her deeds in public
A harpy with a vicious condemnatory tongue
Her public life is marred by the ideas she spreads
That portray ruthless fantasy
Condemning innocents
Rigorously
Blandly
With total injustice
There she rages now
Creating headlines with her sinister statements
So remote from kindness
From justice
And from truth
That she colours her destiny with contempt
You ask me for her name
I decline your request
As a prelude to her future
For she will soon be forever forgotten

Election Trauma

There you are, it’s time to vote
And then to harvest the flowers
From the garden of lies
What a fake fanfare you are hearing
From the elected one
Conveying bogus humility
With counterfeit respect for the voice of the people
While the loser
Pretends to accept the decision of the electors
Gracefully
All fabrications these
The victor rejoices in the profit derived from fame
While the defeated one
Thinks next time he will need more ad money
Thus the wheels of government grind insatiably on
Leaving the poor and the needy, especially if they are old,
To fend desperately for themselves
If hunger is your problem
Or decent clothes
Or disablement
Or no home
Or age
Then write a letter to the moneyed corporation
That sponsors your local member
Tell them your problem
And then watch the help fail to trickle down
That is the way of things
If you have no ill-gotten gains in your present world
You are doomed to subservience
To desperate financial planning
To hardship without respite
To comfortless existence
To a struggle to endure
So think critically constantly next time you vote
Write letters to the editor
Condemning greedy lobbyists
Then demand virtue ruthlessly or writhe forever in pain

A Premature Eulogy

This life about to end has been a great romp
Learning has been slow
Mistakes have been many
Two lovers only, and they changed me for the better
Three children made me glad to be human
And teaching was my raison d’être
Sharing life at nine schools and three universities
For exactly fifty years
Twelve books I wrote, lots of poems like this
And some dealings with vanity press
Played soccer, rugby union, league and cricket
Two sporting blues won
Oh and I have three degrees
So there you see, quite a range of endeavours
With a ribbon of failures time kindly severs
Now what else do I need to say?
Well, I have an array of ideas to share:
As I’m a skeptic I now declare
I believe politicians rarely tell the truth
That political parties serve corporate masters
That privatisation’s a red herring for the few
That wise taxes are good for the world
That welfare’s more important than a balanced budget
That war is a swindle for a very rich few
That logging of rain forests is a curse
That indigenous people should be loved and respected
That nuclear energy should be used only for medicine
That climate change deniers have cognitive paralysis
That university scholarship should be free
That education and health out value atomic submarines
That without history we repeat and repeat our follies
That advertisements are sinister intrusions
That all the world IS a stage
Thus I am tempted to portray rage
But I hopefully dream of heaven above
So I choose instead to declare my love
As devotion to my children and my loving wife
Is the one pure joy of my divergent life

royciebaby