Royce Levi Australian Teacher and Author

Paramedic

There I was
Unsure of my existence
Anxious and afraid
Body mechanisms just not working
I wondered if my time had come
His voice was gentle
That greeting almost tender
The concern for me was obvious
He was calmly so proficient
He checked my blood pressure
Felt my pulse
Looked carefully at my eyes and face
All the time talking in a friendly, unruffled way
His aura of proficiency gave me peace of mind
Fear drifted away quite quickly
A stretcher on wheels took me smoothly to the ambulance
That new friend watching over me with the driver
Skilfully placed me on board and secured me with a belt
He sat beside me during that journey
Gently but efficiently when we arrived
Taking the essential details of my personal life
Then came the sanctuary of the hospital
Where I was saved from that current pain and trouble
And given more time to live
Now here I sit writing this verse
In better health than I endured before
With only the memory of that man who changed my life
What can I do to thank him?
We shall probably never meet again
All I have are these words I write
And the overwhelming wish
To support those wondrous men and women
Who reach out and hold the hand
Of struggling souls like me

Love

Love, it is an active thing
A performer with many faces
A reaching out to another
There is so much pain it replaces
It can weave a subtle magic spell
With its silken thread of kindness
It can take away your loneliness
And cure your insular blindness
So try it: entwine yourself in another life
Though stupidity around you is rife
That love will gently tinker with your fate
And show you the power of love over hate
Even when your downfall seems decided
It will give you power to reshape your life
Where concern and care are derided
So reach out now to that untried friend
Find a way to share magnanimity
To help another’s troubles to end
With a joy that relates to divinity
Notice then as a consequence
The dramatic change in you
A different arena you will discover
Where even dreams can come true
As you have no fear and are bound to recover
With a second self to admire
If you share your thoughts, set your spirit afire
Two can turn into one
Then you will find a change has begun
In the moon and the sun and the air and the sky
And everything else on earth
A reshaping unseen by you before
In all time since your birth

A Hole In The Wall

Come with me now
Over here
By this hole in the wall
Listen to them talking
These Apates * who determine our destiny
Hear their twisted, cunning discourse of deceit
Warnings of dangers that don’t exist
To justify spending on weapons of war
Melodious canine music in support of extremists
Who attack your rivals
High praise for fictitious solutions to global warming
That will do more harm than good
Plans to earn tainted money by selling fossil fuels
As long as the market exists
Furtive PR conniving with the media
To create the myth of concern for the common man
And portray counterfeit camaraderie
Tax concessions for the wealthy and pathos for the poor
Machinations with rich backers to destroy public ownership
For the profit of the few
Endorse yes-men on radio by giving them your time
Praise our way of life with empty euphemisms
Sign your fate away in treaties with money and power
Make Satan the true hero of Paradise Lost
And pose as a guardian of the nation’s future
There you have it
Do you see what I mean when I say
It’s such a crucial source of knowledge that wall opening?
What should we do?
What course of action can we of little influence follow?
Mend that wall I say, and walk away
Towards a humane future of trust and peace
And, dare I say it, compassion for the needy

*In Greek mythology Apate was the personification of deceit.

The Unknown Citizen

There he lies
In The Hall Of Recollections
The Unknown Citizen
Quite young he was – a mere sixteen
Still at school
Loved his dog who died with him
Made a kite that once flew boldly over the roofs of his village
Dreamed of being a pilot with his country’s airlines
Was his school champion at distance running
Also aspired to an Olympic destiny
His father was dead so he lifted heavy things for his mother
And helped his aged grandparents who were both deaf
And needed aid to walk and to talk
He worked in the family garden which was so important
As they were very poor
Tended the poultry too: six hens and a rooster
In a very small enclosure
Fed them every day and collected the eggs
Went fishing by the river after school for more needed food
And mended the roof with palm leaves when the rain burst through
He was an only child of his solitary parent for most of his life
As his younger sister died of typhoid fever
Nobody knows the details you have here read
As his body was burned beyond recognition
And his entire village was destroyed
That body now lies with words of due regard
Beside the Unknown Soldier
As an ostensible token of regret and respect by a nation…
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month
A trumpet sounds to disturb his peace
As a wreath is laid…
For the rest of the year he is forgotten

Doublespeak

So
Listen to you, so cunning you are
Condemning violence
Yet claiming understanding of the reasons for it
So you are not truly disparaging
But equivocating, dodging, pussyfooting around
Almost in favour
And thus you in reality befriend the extremists…
You are actually one of them
Because your condemnation is ephemeral
Almost faint praise
So be it
That is the modus operandi of your politics
You’re not an overt reality
Only what seems to be
A performer
An actor on a violent stage
Therefore please understand my rage
For in my lifetime I have seen violence destroy conciliation
Murders become a political strategy
And subtly aimed political whistles
Transform themselves into symphonies of success
This is my memo to you
Note well now and forever more
I hear what you say but I see what you do
The truth about you thunders above you
Lightning flashes from that storm
Seeking a pathway to the ground
A tower of deception exists
It will be struck and destroyed
And that doomed edifice
Because of your sordid reality
Will be you

royciebaby

Quest

I wandered lonely as an honest man
Amidst a crowd of politicians
My torch in daylight outdid Diogenes as it had batteries
But the result was the same
Still I wandered, ever hopeful
Ah! There was one
A large hat accompanied by a man
He looked honest
In a head piece like that and the sun so hot
You could cook eggs on the ground
So I thought I would listen to his words
He said that if the world’s buying it,
There’s a market for it
How interesting I thought
Could he mean tobacco, cocaine, heroin or illicit weapons?
Oh no! Fancy that
He was speaking of coal
So I had to assign him a different role
He was not my honest man
The search continued with my torch alight
I went to the office of the Sydney Times
But they failed my test as they were obsessed with crimes
They were not my honest men
An estate agent next caught my eye
But there I detected a plant who helped the agent to rant
And make the price climb higher
That was not my honest man
Next was an ad-man who seemed not a bad man
Until he declared junk food was good for the nation
He was not my honest man
And so the day wore on seemingly coming to a sorry end
One more guy caught my eye
A Prime Minister attending a rally
But the boos and jeers that struck my ears
Defined him as an Aunt Sally
He was not my honest man
The sun was getting ready to set
It was time for me to go home
I switched off my torch and wended my weary way
Almost home, I passed a man who was sweeping the street
Reaching for my key I disturbed my Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coin
It is extremely valuable
It rolled out of my reach and disappeared
I searched in vain
Suddenly the street sweeper called out to me
“Here it is. Under my broom. Saved from the maintenance hole.”
I had found my honest man
Or, more accurately, my honest man found me

Trophy Madness

And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,
But his Captain’s hand on his shoulder smote —
‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’

“Vitai Lampada” – “The Torch of Life”
Henry Newbolt

Look at them
Hugging each other en masse
Jumping on the spot like fire walkers on hot coals
Apparent confetti flying everywhere
One of them holding a trophy on high
Flames leaping out of the ground with lascivious orgasmic delight
As cameras bring the excitement to the world
What a strange focus!
Winning is so important that you bury your opponent
The loser, in an unmarked grave
Those of us whom the years have not condemned
Will remember the dignity of Bradman
A touch of the cap in response to the thunderous applause
Perhaps a waving of the bat
And then on with the next century
Why is it so?
Why the trophy madness?
One answer could be Can-do Capitalism
Money is so ingrained in modern sport
That winning is a financial coup
Losing is just not good enough
It’s a disgrace and if you do it too often, you get the sack
As for the modern tools, the coach and his entourage of helpers,
Every step you take could be your last
Four losses in a row is like filing for bankruptcy
Any more and you’re gone
So here’s to the heroes
Those who played for nothing and inspired us all
They will live in memory
When all the balance sheets are waste paper

The Nil Hypothesis

Let it be
Clear the decks of wise and intelligent planning
Turn competition loose
And things will simply fix themselves
Give egotistic entrepreneurs unencumbered tax free licence
And things will fall into place
Paradise will be regained and maintained ad infinitum
By the mission linked to profit
Call it freedom and you can then wage highly lucrative wars
To defend it
Set the robber barons free
And all will be right with the world
Open all services to the free market
Link up with the wise and realise what a joy it is to privatise
Tie hospitals to profit, education to financial returns
Hand over the media to Midas and ignore how much he earns
Let free enterprise be you daily hymn
Ring it out loud and clear
Sell off every amenity
And you’ll have nothing to fear
If things go wrong just sing the song that echoes down the ages
Pass the buck to guiltless rivals maligned on Yellow Press pages
Never admit a planning error, invent an excuse as the reason
Let the guilty off the hook as if fools were then in season
This above all
Never stop talking about your own success
Spread it abroad on radio, TV and in the colourful press
It then shall follow as morning follows night
There will be no significant difference between specified populations
But triumph will come to the chosen few

A Study Of Lies

That politician just said that all politicians are liars
Oh dear! Can it be that he is telling the truth?
Epimenides has us then firmly in his grasp*
But let the paradox be
Let us examine lies more closely
It may indeed be worth the effort
In a world where pretence is so profitable…
Lies have many shapes and sizes
First for our attention, the inverted lie
When Nelson saw no signal at Trafalgar
He held the telescope to his blind eye
So in order to lie, Nelson actually told the truth
Then there is the racist politician who hates foreigners
But blames people smugglers
For his keeping refugees in indefinite detention
Next in the fabrication genre is the fuzzy lie
A high sounding statement with no real and clear foundation
Freedom, our way of life and our past history reveals
Are common examples of the language
The CIA overthrew Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran in 1953
Largely over oil but the perjury was to foster a better way of life
Many more examples of this category exist…
Then alas, there is the mega lie
So potent it belongs to what we can call the master fabricator
The first example is the Trump fantasy of election fraud in 2020
There are still many, many believers all ready to act
Though it turns the Flat Earth Society into Nobel Prize geniuses
A second mega lie is linked to the GST in the Australia of 1955
When a heavy tax was imposed on the poor and the rich equally
Despite a mega lie by then Prime Minister John Howard
Who foretold its introduction with: “Never ever. It’s dead.”
Finally we end a mere introduction with the private lie
This above all: to thine own self be true**
All lies are deadly, but most lethal when you lie to yourself

*Epimenides was a Cretan who made one paradoxical statement: “All Cretans are liars.”.

** Shakespeare: Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3

royciebaby

Modelling

Enter the modeller…
So
The alchemist returns
Turns lead into gold in his model
Aha!
It is pyrite disguised as platinum
And how well the deceiver stands in status
Paid with lucre fit for kings
With the well funded persona of counterfeit respectability
A well paid shadow in the persuasive halls of pretence
Free as a bird, a bird of prey,
To generate the illusion of accurate judgement
But hiding a dark reality
How strange it is that mathematical misdemeanours
Effigies in data
Drawn from false or non-existent prototypes
Can be declared masterstrokes of planning for government action
Then the apparent genius declares the big lie
With a fanfare of fake trumpets
And the mob bows its heads in wonder
Deceived by the deadly patter of unintelligibility
Befuddling their brains with cunning opacity
And so
The nation continues to burn coal, oil and natural gas
To generate power
To reduce forests to their last throes of existence
To generate wood and space
To produce consumer goods ad infinitum
To generate profit
Unmentioned by the consultant posing as a truthful scion of reality
Do you hear the praise the profiteers heap upon his kind of truth?
Deafening applause for the deceptive mock up
As the irrelevant music plays and we dance a destructive dance?

Data

Look at me
I am a number
Just an outcome of mean and standard deviation
With all my virtues nullified by analysis of co-variance
It’s a funny feeling this
A kind of impersonal existence
Insensitive to love and hate, anxiety and fear
Just an equation ready for persuasion
The integer that I am
Will be determined by what I do on the net
By what I support publicly
By what I buy
More importantly
Decisions will be made about my life
Based entirely of formulaic movement of calculations
If they move a decimal even one point to the left
Considerable misery is likely
Two points to the right and we’ll all be in paradise
Unless we are dealing with disease
It all depends on the raison d’être of the mathematician
On the aims of the elected leaders
And how accurately their integrity is portrayed to the masses
To get them into power
That’s it then
Look carefully please at me
Will I die?
The probability is one
With things as they are, will I be happy before I die?
That probability is one divided by infinity

..
On An Infamous Grasping Trickster

Look at him
A pretentious icon of self interest
He has to be popular to survive
People have to choose him
So he praises himself by word and deed
Extremely overtly
Like a degenerate peacock
He puts himself into public gaze as if it were an accident
Instead, it is so deliberate
So calculating
So cunningly intruding into people’s attention
Things happen as if by chance
Whereas all is so carefully planned
He’ll go to a place where cameras just happen to be
Because of forewarning
He’ll drive past in an electric car as global warming pretence
And wave to the viewers
As if he didn’t know they would be there
He’ll flaunt himself in a factory wearing a hard hat
Shake hands demonstrably
With an old man he has never met before
And never will again
He will speak at a conference for fifty minutes
And say nothing
To make sure his backers are not compromised
He will laugh nonchalantly as often as a cameraman can find him
To imply a cheerful soul goodwill hunting
He will deny his mistakes and share his intentions as if beholden
And promise you the moon on a dark and moonless night
As if he owned Apollo 12
But instead, with face radiant and guile embellished with smiles,
He will sell you Apollo 13

On Not Being Understood

Sometimes despair hovers around you
Your words bounce off the minds of others
Like rain on a tin roof
And run away down a gutter of misunderstanding
To disappear
As if they had never happened
The challenge is
To keep on sharing your thoughts
To foster still the hope that springs eternal*
And believe that one day
You will touch minds with another thinking reed
Sometimes you win
More often alas you lose
Yet be not afraid to cast pearls before swine**
Dangerous as that is…
Victory can change the world in no small way
If even one mind, perhaps a young one,
Is touched by what you say
And is guided by your words to a better place
All will then be closer to well in a worried world
Than if you had been condemned by fear and dread
To furtive silence
So speak on despite the ignorance around you
Share your wisdom such as it is
For if you are wise,
Your words will stay afloat in a sea of incompetence
As potential salvation to someone
And if you are not
Some other soul who has been set free
Will utter words to save you

*A phrase from the Alexander Pope poem An Essay on Man

**…nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces (Matthew 7:6)

The Technical Crackpot

O have you heard of the Technical Crackpot
Who derides the sun and the wind?
He will babble on in his Hanging Garden
Say the sun doesn’t always shine
And the wind doesn’t always blow
So the power of the sun
And the strength of the wind
He just doesn’t want to know
And then with a twist if you get my gist
He does a confusing turn about
Soon with a tune that is linked to the moon
He gives technology a shout
His elocution is electrocution
As it gives every listener a shock
He says fire and drought, storm and flood
Can be easily nipped in the bud
All you need is yet to be invented technology
Whereupon people like you and me
Think his need is clinical psychology
How on earth can you save the earth
With inventions yet to be invented?
Such a plan has so little worth
And the planner seems clearly demented
So there you have it
We’ll all be doomed if they vote for him
It would be a fate worse than death
Our future then would be ever so grim
And our world would be on its last breath

royciebaby

The Answer Man

A Tribute To A Political Icon:
Identity Obvious

O have you met the Answer Man
Who always has a reply?
If you catch him out or discover his tricks
He will simply tell you a lie
His face radiates integrity
But he never provides any proof
He fakes a smile endorsed with guile
And pretends to tell you the truth
He’s quick off the mark, never hesitates
Ever ready with a solution
If you see through his game and question his fame
He’ll fake a revolution
Rapprochement is his stock in trade
Whenever the going gets tough
He’ll sign a treaty with the Devil
If the outcome puts a blanket on his bluff
He loves to find a media op
To divert attention from his crimes
He poses like a saint in a bed of roses
As on high ever upwards he climbs
If perchance by a whim of the gods
Your path and his should cross
You won’t get a word in when he speaks
Though his words are but fairy floss
So hear this now you would-be voters
When next there is an election
The only way you can save our world
Is to give him a vivisection

Chain Reaction

Strange things just happened in Eternity
A town in the USA
They altered the lives of so many people
On an otherwise normal day
It all began when a bird
Plucked a worm from the ground near a bush
This frightened a bee which hid in a flower
So that when a florist picked that flower
He was painfully stung by that bee
He gave forth a yell as loud as a bell
That frightened an arborist in a tree
Who dropped his saw
Which fell to earth in a highly dangerous way
Striking a passing tourist on the foot
The visitor let forth strong modes of expression
And painfully hopped away
He went too far with his hopping, overbalanced
And fell into a pond
A biologist was doing research in that pond
So a welcome was not forthcoming
The scientist gathered up his tools in a rage
And angrily left the scene
On his way home in his four-wheel drive
His anger ran away with driving skill
And he plunged off the road into a farm
Without opening the gate
The farmer was a quiet, gentle man as all farmers are,
So he hurried across to check on the health
Of his unintended visitor
All was well, apart from a broken light,
So the two began a friendly chat
That was when the rural man learned the truth of global warming
So impressed was he that soon he owned
The world’s first solar driven farm
Such an outcome from such a simple deed
Is why all children need to know about the birds and the bees

Apocalypse 2050

It was the worst of times
Mortal danger was in the air
Fear raised an ugly head
Riddled with snakes like Medusa’s
Nights were silent save for brain crushing thunder
Black but for lightning’s flashing scimitar
Wildfire devoured the forest and houses
Like a starving tyrannosaurus
The wind was a wailing banshee
Shrieking through your bones
Floods were clenched fists
Around everything that moved
And the heat was an incessant fire stoked in Hades
Throughout this maelstrom danced the effigies of fools
Denying reality like men of straw on steroids
Telling lies like Madoff in Wall Street
Creating a fantasia of excuses for not acting positively
In the face of truth about global warming
Never forget how they diverted your attention
From their inane lack of informed action
By replacing scientific verification of our deadly danger
With fairy tales at the bottom of a garden
As part of the destruction and decay of all living things
O how life cries out for mercy
In the face of everything wrongful existence incorporates
Tears stream from eyes beholding consequences
Productive landscapes for food are now deserts of iniquity
Architects’ dreams lie shattered in the rubble of chaos
Islands once havens of endless beauty
Now lie forever entombed beneath the sea
Creatures that once shared with you a varied and exciting world
Are now nothing but IDs of dead species in a text book
Yet still their ghosts look you in the eye
And seek to know with anguished voices
“Why oh why on earth did you do this to me?”

Success

O is success your dream?
Or rather your sinister scheme?
Ride boldly then you unholy strategist
Into the fields of deception
Where the cleverest deceiver
Master of mere appearances and what people see
Becomes the King
Lord of Heaven and Earth
Arbiter of the destinies of gullible fools
Shape there as you will, the destinies of the greedy
Build your empires of unjust power
With the energy of tyrants born to rule
Create towers of dominance reaching to the sky
So that thinking reeds are never allowed to digress
Crush learning as the dangerous tool of the uninitiated
Build alliances
With the chosen affluent few
As you reach with your tainted hand to the stars
Guard your providence well
Bolster it with lies or threats of danger
Invent enemies to excuse your crass investment in war
But beware
Somewhere in a corner of your dark domain
There is a child of tomorrow
This sapling has escaped your control by learning the truth
From an old and dying victim of your curse
One day inevitably, that innocent will prove your guilt
To a new and awakening world

To Write A Poem

So, that’s a good idea
Or, that’s not right
I think I’ll write a poem about it
So the adventure begins
Sometimes the words flow like a river in flood
Other times like a river in drought
That’s no good the rhythm is terrible
That’s better
Still a bit gauche though
What about a rhyme?
That’s better
Now the music’s starting to appear
But it’s a bit artificial though
What really matters is the rhyme of ideas
My best adviser, my son John,
Tells me that
He’s right of course
But my publisher tells me not to say of course
It’s arrogant
So I’ll withdraw it and just say
It seems to me
Meaning is the ultimate solution
You’ve got to find ways to make it crystal clear
Or even inspiring
The old tricks similes and metaphors
Hyperbole, alliteration and assonance for example
Are well known
I might add repetition and say it again
But they in themselves are not the answer
You can’t just push buttons and get a poem
Something else has got to happen
Speak to you from who knows where
Shake you and break you shiver you and shake you
And suddenly you seem free to do what’s necessary
Yes, that’s it
I think I’ll write a poem about that

royciebaby

Trust

That portrait was my first wife
A happy smile the world beguiles
Contrary to modern trends
She was my very first lover
And I was very definitely mature
Our togetherness was like my first breath of life
A dawn revealing a landscape I didn’t know existed
Birds seemed to sing their songs just for me
The wind
Wrapping itself round the two of us was far more exciting
We shared music and plays and paintings
In ways that revealed the truth to both of us
I was not reborn, just a different person
And her interest in me made me boldly adventurous
A traveller in a hitherto unexplored land
In a partnership fashioned skilfully in paradise
Marriage came inevitably, and children
But time coldly stated its price
Not contempt but certainly familiarity
And an opportunity for a friend to take my place
Peter was his calling card
A musician who played a different tune
Cadenzas of seduction and drum beats of passion
I didn’t have a chance
She was drawn away from me as a moth to light
And I withered on my ageing vine
But all was not lost
Time can be a friend in the oddest of ways
It gave her time to sense the reality of passing affection
That was my chance so I welcomed her back to my side
And then she died
Suddenly and with little time for farewells
Her eyes still meet mine from my wall
That smile transcends so much else
There was a time with her when I could move mountains
That memory revokes all betrayal…trust me

Compassion

See how your business acumen circles you
Casting aside irrelevant reality
From there you rule your flourishing domain
Like an absolute monarch of old
Free of such trivialities
As compassion for others
Or even awareness of their existence
Details of your regency knock on your door
Like servants from downstairs
Accounts of successful transactions get your attention
And inflate your ego
Mission statements are rewritten in the light of planned takeovers
Market movements
Capture your interest and stir your emotions
Like pushover tries in a Rugby Test
Everything that matters in your life is dealt with
By your well-paid workforce
Who know that if they blunder with a deal
They will be sacked
And thus you agitate within your circle of perception…
Unknown to you
That man who delivers your daily paper
Has just lost his father to COVID-19
Your lawyer, Smithers, has a son on drugs in intensive care
Andrews, the butcher who sells meat to your supermarket,
Has a wife dying of glioblastoma
Horiya, a secretary in your chain,
Has a sister longing for a visa in a Palestinian refugee camp
Elvira, a cleaner of yours, is a single mother of five
And Jonas, the CEO you recently replaced, has lymphoma…
But things are looking up for the corporation
The market share is brilliant and all’s right with the world

One More Time

So the years pass
In spite of everything you do
Leaving behind the wreckage of your schemes
And the constant reminders of what might have been
Vide these things
A broken promise here
A lie carefully crafted to achieve a questionable outcome
A balanced budget
Leaving the needy frantically ignored
A rich man’s pipe dream given a synthetic imprimatur
Praised to high heaven as progress
Funds raised by selling off resources that once belonged to all
Treaties signed
To verify your enemies through cultivated animosity
Frantic sales promotion of what you can dig up or cut down
Pride in achievement loquaciously confirmed
By praise of a strong economy and categorised data known as jobs
Thus the years dwindle away
Time for the next election arrives
This may well be my last, according to standardised chronology
I have been there before, so many times
Suffered the blunders that led to war or other chaos
Felt the pain
As the world I once knew
Was pilloried by the stock market or vested interest
Even the trees I once climbed all those years ago
Are now memories crushed by concrete
So be it; let it be no more
But all this still can change
I will play my frail hand one more time
And vote for the truth in my final effort to remedy the world’s pain
QED perchance

The Last Koala

That was the last koala I have seen
I think it was a male
There was a belligerent air about him
As he watched me from on high
He seemed to own the tree
Grasping it with his whole body
Climbing upwards to well-being with such assurance
And looking down on ground ridden me
With something akin to arrogance
Then he started eating leaves
Efficiently and with obvious satisfaction
Yet still watching me like some accredited scientific observer
He didn’t trust me obviously, even though I was no immediate threat
We both loved those trees
They gave me shade and him sanctuary and upmarket meals
Somehow I enjoyed his company
I thought back to my childhood and remembered
How I liked cuddly things
We stayed together for quite a while
Then he seemed to become bored with me
And moved to another tree and then another
Destined I thought for another meeting perhaps
A sojourn where the trees were thickest or perhaps a tryst
That meeting of ours was a little more than a year ago
I came back again only this morning
Found that tree again
It is nothing more than a black stump
All those other trees are but charred relics
It was a wildfire that did this
Killed five humans and injured more
As for my koala 

Nowhere to be seen on earth

Fallacious Scrutiny

Please tell me young man
Why are you learning?
What is the reason for your quest for knowledge?
Do you want to know why science
Is the life force of your existence?
Are you spellbound with wonder to discover
Why our deeds in the past
Have led to our follies in the present?
Does art cry on your shoulder and long to be understood?
Are you interested in exploring the chasms of the human mind
To discover why we do things and what we are?
Are you inspired by strangers from other lands
Who teach you new and different ways to think?
What is that you say?
None of those frilly things inspire you?
Your mission in life is precise and supported by tradition
Immediate consequences
Quick feedback on the reality of what you are
In other words, the examination
Aha! So that’s it
A tribal classification is your dream
An indoctrination to determine your destiny
A category system to point out the élite
And the hewers of wood and drawers of water
That is your reason for learning
Very well then
Remember this in your salad days
The highest award lies always beneath the sword of Damocles*
And the first and second quartiles are still half our future
So beware of false judgements
If you fail, remember
Time and truth are the only true determinants
And reality is mere conjecture in a time restricted test
The future as a friend can help you find what really matters
If you never cease to try

*Damocles, when he achieved fame, saw a sword above his head poised and ever ready to fall.

royciebaby

The Gift Of Learning

O I can build castles now
That look down on the twisted world
With understanding
I am aware of solutions
To uncertainty that once destroyed my self respect
The gift of learning is suddenly mine
And I have the power to see things as they really are
The rulers of my past
Sought the safety of my ignorance
And tried like overlords to sanction my erudition
But they did not succeed and now they never will
Understanding at this moment walks beside me
Through a troubled wilderness of stupidity
Energised by the power of awareness
Lies of dominant political figures
Now are confessions of guilt
Developers reveal their payola to me
Before they build their sanctioned effigies of greed
Defence industries now make weapons of mass destruction
Border security becomes a racist wall
And protecting our way of life
Turns into a triumph of vested interest
As well as this, I have learnt to experience
The wonder of the artist
The triumph of music over iniquity
From street song to symphony
The rapture of beauty untrammelled by personal gain
The power of satire by way of the written word
Which embarrasses the guilty
And the excitement of the theatre
Which reveals so truly the foibles of human existence
So heed this
All you null and void self-promoting counterfeit statesmen
Beware
I know who you are

Heat

Liar! Liar! The Earth’s on fire
Destiny’s controlled by a few
Can you not see a minority
Of arsonist leaders
Burning our future away?
Supporting with fake applause
Pathetically wrongful causes:
Acceptance of a methane disaster
Destructive fracking of gas
Or devastation by coal for the usual pieces of silver…
Those deeds will live on as unsurpassed iniquity
Consequences of what they do
Will forever curse mankind
Look at the consequences:
The heating of the globe beyond repair
Coral paradises cursed with doom
Species slaughtered by malevolence
Betrayal of tomorrow’s children
Denizens to be
In a world maliciously destroyed by greed
For the sake of devious balance sheets
Or spurious requisitions…
No contrition about emission
Exists in my awareness
They let the cattle eat our future away
Hell on Earth
Is not an opium dream but reality
Created by unscrupulous opportunists
Incineration! Incineration!
It’s all for the good of the nation
You!
Fie on your false elation!
What nation are you talking about?
The proletariate of a doomed state?
A kingdom of fools?
Where is the propriety you claim to have?
Does it lie in the money bags of kleptomaniacs?
So
You are found out
Even children
Driven by you towards desperate activism
Understand what you do
And fight your folly with marches and rallies
Stirred by the sacred reality of science
What can we expect from you?
Righteous indignation
Pious utterances claiming integrity and reenforcing deceit
The usual unprincipled chatter of ne’er-do-wells
Defending the indefensible
Yet one thing stands with stark reality
Your doings will be written
In the annals of eternity for all the eyes of the future
And your children and their children
Will never escape
From the mortification you impose upon their lives

Memories

Thank you so much for your kindness
I appreciate the seat you gave me
It’s good to sit down
Thank you for the water too
It’s important at my age
Any age really
But look, there are one or two things I would like to say
Don’t feel too sorry for me
Even though, according to the usual viewpoint,
My days are numbered
One of the advantages I share in growing old
Unlike those who die young
Is I have an encyclopaedia of memories
I was there
When the grocer used to wrap up your butter for you
And cut off your piece of cheese
When you saw the only news on celluloid at the movies
When the baker and the milkman knocked on your door
When houses outnumbered apartments in the suburbs
When the last steam engine was put into endless sleep
When the trains ran on time
When buses had conductors who gave you a ticket
Helped you if needed, and supported the driver
I recall when sport was a game and not a business
I saw Bradman’s hundredth hundred at the SCG
I remember when century makers would doff their cap gently
And gently raise their bat to the applause
Instead of circumnavigating the globe via the stratosphere
And having a love affair with their headgear
O yes!
All very interesting.
But I was part of more potent history too.
I saw the lights go out in World War II
My heroes were not footballers but fighter pilots:
“Bluey” Truscott, “Killer” Caldwell, and “Paddy” Finucane
We lived in Woollahra when the Japanese shelled the harbour
And sent in their midget submarines.
I remember with horror the crimes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
I read about them in the daily papers
I took one giant step for mankind on the moon
And voted against our Vietnam invasion
Traipsed William Street and past the Nazis as we demonstrated
I saw the first telecast in Australia
Having loved the radio to death
So there you see
I’ll leave my story there
With much more I could tell if the need arose
Dear Friend
Thank you for your kindness
We have shared a small part of a journey and we rest now
Time occasionally masquerades as an enemy
But it’s the same for everyone
Recollection can still be a joyous way of re-living
A panacea for your aches and pains and occasional sadness
Yes, that is the way of things

Were You There?

Were you there when they chose to go to war?
Did you vote so that innocents would die?
Were you there when they chose to go to war?
Do you lose sleep now because of what you’ve done?

Were you there when they imprisoned refugees?
Did you vote to have the blameless writhe in gaol ?
Were you there when they imprisoned refugees?
Do you lose sleep now because of what you’ve done?

Were you there when wildfire torched those people?
Did you vote to continue burning coal?
Were you there when wildfire torched those people?
Do you lose sleep now because of what you’ve done?

Were you there when the great whites mangled swimmers?
Did you vote to make the ocean warmer?
Were you there when the great whites mangled swimmers?
Do you lose sleep now because of what you’ve done?

Were you there when hundreds died in floods?
Did you vote to pay no heed to global warming?
Were you there when hundreds died in floods?
Do you lose sleep now because of what you’ve done?

Were you there when heat or cold killed millions?
Did you vote to condone a worthless plan?
Were you there when heat or cold killed millions?
Do you lose sleep now knowing what you haven’t done?

Youth

Every day
Young people give me hope for tomorrow
Not my future
As there are more years behind me than lie ahead
Humanity is in my mind however
But not just people
All the creatures of land and sea
All the plants, and notably the trees
All the rivers and mountains and the rain forest of the tropics
All the air, the wind and the clouds and the sun…
Young, clear thinking, vibrant mentors are needed
If our present world is to flourish or even survive…
Mature age vandals
Have damaged these precious miens of our lives
Almost beyond repair
With their harmful, hurtful, inimical vested interests
Their programs of aggrandisement for the rich and powerful
Even though they are so small in number,
Their inability to see beyond themselves
And I must admit when I see the desolation
Or listen to the lies disguised as integrity
Depression tends to sink into my soul
And yet
Quite often these days
A comforting ray of light lunges through the darkness
There is a voice too to uplift me
And then another, and then another
Emanating from upright, youthful, flexible bodies
And vibrant faces alight with fire and controlled energy
“Yes we can,” they say. “Yes we can. Yes we can.”

Voices Not Heard

Silence is a common device these days
Adroitly used by imposters and politicians
Please pardon the tautology
So you and I
As citizens who care about things
Need to explore this situation a little more closely
Evil triumphs
When good men (and women) do nothing*
That’s a pretty strong piece of wisdom
So let us explore it a little further
In my lifetime
Because it is quite long and increases every day
I’m still glad to say
A lot of sordid things have happened
Let us examine one or two to learn a little more about life…
In the Sixties, America invaded Vietnam
At the time
A majority of Australians thought this was a good idea
They were what Richard Nixon in1969 called “the silent majority”
And Scott Morrison in 2019 exploited as “the quiet Australians”
That was not me in those times
I joined the long-haired rebels, although I was short back and sides
And took to the streets with brothers and sisters, pacifists in vain
In the end events proved us right, we were listened to and won
When will they ever learn? said the song as it happened again
With Iraq in 2003
This time the war planners had an eye for Persian Gulf oil
Again our voices were not heard
All drowned out by weapons of mass destruction that didn’t exist
And the poor people of Iraq suffered – and still do
So what to we learn from these tales
Today silence is not golden
Net voices now are louder than ever before
I hear them day and night now, and they gently lull me to sleep

*It was not said by Edmund Burke. I don’t know who.

royciebaby

Strawberry Fair

As I was going to Strawberry Fair
I met a man who hardly seemed there
He told me that he loved the Earth
And knew what human life was worth
He understood the rational rules
That would end the use of fossil fuels
He sighed and made almost tearful admissions
That life might end due to global emissions
He said that kindness would play a role
If caring people stopped digging coal
He said he was cool and not a fool and knew the dangers of heat
If no people knew about CO2 dear old folks could die on their feet
He said the world’s anguish would never heal
If we kept the same buildup of iron and steel
He told of his horror and constant pleas
To end the destruction of precious trees
He spoke of his struggle and constant pain
As he longed to end the flood of methane
Then we touched on the worth of technology
So I gave a thought to psychology
Those skeptics said I, put their faith in invention
But for sun and wind power it gets never a mention
On this we both agreed, and parted in a friendly way
We have met no more, not even once, up to the present day
This makes me sad as I liked his words and we were a happy pair
I long to meet him again some day; yes, he’s out there somewhere

Cages

Poor creatures
Caged like boat people in Australia
Definite detention
All you do is lay eggs
Nowhere to walk
No ground to scratch
No earthworms to catch and eat
Not even enough room to stretch your wings
No peaceful sleep at night
No dawn to greet
You are nothing but a machine
Sensorily deprived
All this for the sake of business
Your suffering keeps the price down
Free range is but a dream of the Elysian Fields
That never enters your minute awareness
And when all is done
What is the destiny of this myriad of tiny minds
Crammed together like ants with feathers?
Why, it’s cremation for the dinner table
And a happy Christmas is had by all

Friend

2021 Hear This: A leader
has been accused of betraying trust

A friend is always with you
Unmoved by the winds of time
When you struggle on a road leading over a mountain
That ally will help you climb
When you make mistakes or act the fool
That person will stay by your side
And gently support the virtue in you
Even though you have nowhere to hide
No bond, no money, no favour’s required
For that kind of caring to renew you
All you need is the power of trust
To bind that friendship to you
There is often a moment in human existence
When misfortune molests your life
When things that you or others have done
Might lead you to ruinous strife
That is when friendship thrives
The place where it passes the test
As you and that partner are blended as one
And the eagle flies home to its nest
So listen you leaders of every land beware lest trust should perish
Be linked to that friend with bonds of steel
And you’ll fashion a destiny to cherish

But We Bought A Submarine

Poor Jenny passed away with melanoma
She was only eighteen
Funds are needed to search for a cure
But we bought a submarine

Aaron died of an overdose
God knows where he had been
Funds were needed to find the source
But we bought a submarine

Old Jacob died of Alzheimer’s disease
The worst case we have seen
Funds are needed to research the illness
But we bought a submarine

Motor neurones cost Peter his life
He was no more than a teen
Funds are needed to end that suffering
But we bought a submarine

Cystic fibrosis gave Susan Hell
She endured a malfunctioning gene
Funds were needed to prolong her life
But we bought a submarine

Alice was a victim of glioblastoma
And died behind a dark screen
Funds are needed to prevent such deaths
But we bought a submarine

Matthew died while driving a car
It was a ghastly scene
Funds are needed to teach young drivers
But we bought a submarine

Global warming threatens the world
While green to some is mean
Now science needs funds to reveal the truth
But we bought a submarine

A political icon sought a war
By violently venting his spleen
Concord was needed to save the world
But we bought a submarine

The Gift Of Learning

O I can build castles now
That look down on the twisted world
With understanding
I am aware of solutions
To uncertainty that once destroyed my self respect
The gift of learning is suddenly mine
And I have the power to see things as they really are
The rulers of the past
Sought the safety of my ignorance
And tried like overlords to sanction my erudition
But they did not succeed and now they never will
Understanding at this moment walks beside me
Through a troubled wilderness of stupidity
Energised by the power of awareness
Lies of respected political figures
Now are confessions of guilt
Developers reveal their payola to me
Before they build their sanctioned effigies of greed
Defence industries now make weapons of mass destruction
Border security becomes a racist wall
And protecting our way of life
Turns into a triumph of vested interest
As well as this, I have learnt to experience
The wonder of the artist
The triumph of music over iniquity
From street song to symphony
The rapture of beauty untrammelled by personal gain
The power of satire by way of the written word
Which embarrasses the guilty
And the excitement of the theatre
Which echoes so truly the foibles of human existence
So heed this
All you null and void self-promoting misnomers of statesmen
Beware
I know who you are

royciebaby

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

The Flames Of Hell

Politics 2021

The boat is terribly overcrowded
Erebus is having a nervous breakdown
Due to unprecedented numbers
Of boat people who are not the usual refugees
Queueing up for end of the line transport…
In the world above
Lies are on Ford’s assembly line
Occurring like flies on thrown away Big Macs
So that below
The flames are curling around the Underworld’s eternity
With radiance never before seen
Why is this so?
Well…
In the impermanent domain of the living
Deceit has become normality
Thus, in a New Age of Deception
Hell’s immigrants are suddenly forced
To line up in unprecedented numbers
Because, in the place the gods know as Earth
The times are rearranging frightfully…
For example
Now students are doing postgraduate work
Stating conclusions with an air of omniscient pride
Without the slightest reference to their modelling
No one can check on their methodology
No peer reviews
No helpful viva voce testing
All gone down the plug hole of sham respectability
And yet the academic rewards are phenomenal
Lifting the game players to first class honours
With portentous, historic, momentous consequences
Promoting some graduates
Even to the level of leadership of the land
But despite all this, there is a ray of hope:
False testamurs burn very easily in the flames of Hell

Fire and Brimstone

We know what fire is actually
Seen lots of it lately because of climate denial
But what is brimstone?
It smells a little of witchcraft
Well no, it’s rotten eggs actually
The word itself means burning stone
So when stone burns and volcanoes erupt
You can get your whiff of eggs past their prime
It’s actually burning sulphur, producing sulphur dioxide
So if you are near the eruption and smell the stinking, reeking
Fetid odour, it is no wonder your mind conjures forth a vision of Hell
So fire and brimstone is a phrase that reminds us all of Hades
But this is not the only reason for devilish lines of thought
Let us go along with the fantasy for a brief time
Why would an average sinner go to Hell?
Violence, rape, murder? Probably
Pedophilia? Only if found out
Lies? May not all fit
Fraud? Mostly
Which brings us back to skeptical incendiarists
Fire burns on earth as in Hell

Jobs Jobs Jobs

Political Voices: October 2021

Concern for regional Australia
Is the latest cry in the political air waves
Swirling around the atmosphere and bouncing off the sky
But why O why is anxiety brewing?
Can you not see what our leaders are doing?
A plan that’s transparent is the way that they do it
So that we of the plebs can see right through it
That is what has been achieved by the plan
Great loyalty to constituents
And jobs, jobs, yes countless jobs all there for the taking
Look at them – gifts to the plebs from climate deniers
Firemen made ready for the wildfire
Well placed everywhere just ahead of the infernos
Lifeguards stationed throughout the backcountry
In readiness for the floods
Weathermen taught at regional TAFEs
To predict the deadly pathways of typhoons
Emergency haymakers trained there too
In readiness for the droughts
Rustics finding jobs in countless pastoral plants
Set up to make lightning rods
Cottage industries spread throughout the regions
Fashioning hand-held fans
Regional factories providing many many other jobs
Producing bottles for example, to hold the only drinkable water
More jobs too in country factories
Making sun-proof hats for outdoor workers
More factories as well with jobs around the zones
Making cooling sprinklers for children’s playgrounds
There will surely be a boom too throughout the countryside
In reconstruction jobs for houses destroyed by the weather
Another item is yet to lift the market due to the transparent plan
Sympathy card workshops for the victims of natural disaster

O Death Where Is Thy Sting

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
1 Corinthians 15:55

O death where is thy sting?
O pity where is your swindle, fraud, deception?
Can you see the cunning twist, the subtle slant of reality
Whereby tricksters harness a nation’s racist trends
For their own ends?
Ah how sad it is, this cremation of compassion,
Where innocents are punished in a heartless fashion!
What is a crime?
The breaking of a law is a handy definition
But there is another extraordinary rendition
Punishment for obeying a law…
Some refugees defer to one law I mention*
Yet have their lives destroyed by indefinite detention…
There is a shadow of shame
That follows the perpetrators of this deed
The arrogant poseurs
Who look into the eyes of their audience
With false saintliness
Cunningly claiming motivation to keep borders safe
And claiming virtue by ending the illicit trade
Of people smuggling
But with inhumanity and an eternal blot on their escutcheon
Can you hear the cries of their victims
Echoing into the future so that historians will write the truth?
Is suicide a tragedy in your eyes?
There have been too many refugees committing this
Should children be prised apart from parents?
Not in any idyll devised by man
Will the future see repercussions of this behaviour
Punitive invasion by newly arisen enemy nations perhaps?
Or will we be forgiven by more civilised aliens?
But one certainty exists
The honourable gentlemen responsible for the sting
Will not die respected

*The Universal Declaration of Human Rights supporting the right of all people to be able to seek asylum (Article 14). There is no illegal form of arrival so boats must be permitted.

The Honourable Member Will No Longer Be Heard

“I will give them my Congo, but they have no right to know what i did there.”
― Leopold II Of Belgium

Politics 2021 Style

Look at them stifling debate
Political chicanery within the rules
Silencing free speech because it embarrasses them
Is this cowardice?
More likely deliberate suppression of damaging truth
The opponent silenced
Is aware of your failings, your shortcomings, your faults, your lies
So you overcome him by force
Like Wakford Squeers of Dotheboys Hall*
Hushing a miscreant…
In what ways is this speech embargo significant?
Well now
Overtly, every member of parliament in any land on earth,
Will boldly proclaim respect for FDRs four freedoms**
With the light of sincerity in his or her eyes and fist pummelling air
Rhetoric that reeks of noble integrity
Will follow this gesture
To imply unflinching, righteous sincerity
And integrity beyond question
But if the truth be known, what is the reality of this political act?
Have you heard of the crimes of King Leopold II of Belgium?
Millions massacred and hands cut off for the disobedient
All the while proclaiming paternal virtue
Have you dear lover of truth, read the Casement Report?***
Have you studied the words of Mark Twain:
King Leopold’s Soliloquy, Boston 1905?****
If you have, regarding those voices, how fortunate you are
Not to have been kept in the dark
By such words as
The honourable member will no longer be heard

*From Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby.

**Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear

***The 1904 Casement Report. Modern estimates range from 1 million to 15 million murdered

**** A quote from the text: “exposures of a king, a sacred personage and immune from reproach.”

Trouble In The Backcountry 2050

From Politics 2021
Bravo!
Methane in the regions was so well protected in 2021
Posterior openings of the digestive tracts of cattle
Were sanctified
And the bountiful Bovidae were free to graze
A wondrous plan
And the noble creatures sought to serve a glorious business
But O woe is us!
Horrendous consequences came to haunt us
The little grass left by the drought was burnt by wildfire
Water shortage was almost life-threatening
Then premium bulls and many a herd died in lethal floods
Most buildings in our farms were torn apart by tempests
Gales blew down the fences so intruders ate the clover
Weeds were the only other growth that survived the heat
Heat stress cut back milk and calf birth for surviving cows
Pest invasions almost drove us out of our ruined houses
Coastal salinisation brought salt ions into soil and water
Rising seas meant that seawater flooded our swamps
Hail storms ruined any crops left alive by the heat
Wild things of all kinds invaded us as food was scarce
Costs of home insurance, food and electricity rose vastly
Higher taxes were the last straw as our life became ghastly
What is left of the methane however,
Still wends its way happily into the sky

Tempest

Typhoons Of 2021

O how the tempest rages!
Lightning carves up the sky
Into little chunks of troubled existence
The wind is wailing a funeral dirge
Which turns into uncontrolled expletives
As it beats frail buildings into submission
Hail storms break windows with furious dementedness
Fists of ice beat on roofs as well, demanding restitution
Thunder shatters normality like wild beasts afraid of themselves
And then is a drum beat of demonic intensity keeping chaotic time
Rivers rise in disarray like frightened prey fleeing Nimrod
Then spread themselves relentlessly
Trains die between stations terminated by water
Birds flee in fear to other places
Psychopathic dogs run for it to dark corners
A pungent smell of leaking gas haunts the fetid air
Lights and other appurtenances writhe in suspended animation
Roads become morgues for cars
While helpless humans crowd onto hills
God one believes, is still in his Heaven
But all is not right with the world

royciebaby

Jockey

There you stand
Whip in hand
Bright colours catching the eye
White gloves
Black boots
Helmet for protection and subtle padding elsewhere …
Beneath the pizzazz that you wear
Lies subtle bravery
Not obvious as you stand there in the mounting yard
Looking casual and relaxed
Diminutive yet significant
For you will make decisions in the next short time
That will matter to the apostles of greed
With a touch of luck
Your reputation will improve
And that is a matter of vital importance
A constant link to your life’s emoluments…
Now you mount
With a little help
A lift of your left leg from a momentary friend
To begin a journey soon
Where fate is your constant companion
Your steed greets you
With a toss of the head and a lunge to the right
But you take control as the master
Is this Pegasus?*
No
The name is profoundly less well known
But he is all you have
And your duty begins and ends with him
So it’s off to the starting gate
Graciously in a gentle canter
To save energy for the race
And then into the starting stalls
With the help of attendants
Wearing helmets
And dressed conspicuously in advertisements
To make every post a winner…
Soon all are in
You can feel the passion
Smell the tension
As the starter reaches for his lever
Wait a minute not ready says a rival
You take a deep breath
You’ll be racing soon
Soon
Yes soon
Soon
Now!
Horses to the left of you horses to the right of you
Into the valley of death rides the one
Dirt flying, hits your protected eyes
The thunder of the hooves seems to need lightning,
So loud
Aghhh!
That clumsy rival took your running
You nearly went down
But you’re still in that precarious saddle
Watch out for that railing
Don’t bump it
There’s an opening
Oh no!
Shut off!
A moving wall of tails and hoofs ahead of you
Take it easy
Steady
Not many behind you
A mile to go
This colt is already getting tired
Poor thing
On we go, engulfed in a horde of obedient, struggling creatures
On
And on
And further on
Now the home-straight
You’ll have to use the whip now
Yes but in vain
Flesh and blood are limited
You are riding an also ran
The winning post means nothing to you
There are so many obeisant successful chargers ahead of you
And very few behind
For every victory there must be losers
No room for tears
You are paid for this deed you have completed
Whether you are first or last
Winning is more profitable
But on losing you will still eat
Despite the fear and pain of the struggle…
The race is over
You rise in the saddle and gently ease your momentum
Slowly you lessen the speed
From gallop to canter to walk
Sweat on that neck meets your gaze
You feel pity for the horse
And gently stroke its mane
Then you turn him
And it’s back to the paddock
You dismount
Saddle off now
Weigh-in
You tread on a mall of useless betting tickets
On your way back to the dressing room
Next a shower, as your work day is over
You need a rest
Better hasten home
For tomorrow it’s track-work at dawn

*Pegasus is the famous winged horse of mythology.

The Times They Are A Changin’

The lamplighter no longer lights the lamps
But do the last lamplighters
In dumb show light them to keep their jobs?
Switchboard operators now have nothing left to do
But do those last dear women in our times
Wearing headphones, play with toy phones to keep their jobs?
The chimney sweep no longer delves in soot
But does the last one
Camouflage redundant chimneys to keep his job?
The soda jerk is these days out of work
But does the last jerk
Shake milkshakes extraneously in a final effort to keep his job?
The powder monkey no longer loads cannons with death
But does the last boy seek charity from a jingoist to keep his job?
The milkman no longer comes to our door
But does the last one
Confront a supermarket crying: “Milk-O” to keep his job?
The ice cutter no longer cuts the ice
But does the last one
Offer to break the ice with hermits to keep his job?
The leech collector no longer serves our doctors
But does the last one
Sit in a swamp desperately counting parasites to keep his job?
The elevator operator no longer tells you which floor you are on
But does the last one
Seek to count sheep for insomniacs to keep his job?
The earth no longer survives the heat of man
But does the last coal miner
Work for the monkey
Whose business will destroy the world, to keep his job?

We Just Want The Facts Ma’am

Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe. Abraham Lincoln

Look at them
Politicians
The gods of power
Deliberating behind closed doors
In an effort to reach a conclusion suitable for public gaze
To appear united with a mission to help mankind
But O the secrecy!
Duplicitous cunning, furtiveness, surreptitious fostering of deceit
Zeus* may not be pleased to learn of their self-centered plans
So mum’s the word
Pretend there us unity of purpose in everything you do
And silence the dissidents with threats of Hades
That’s it then
Suitable announcements have been prepared
Ready for Stentor** to speak magisterially
Thus the truth dies
If the recusants are not discovered
Storm and flood and fire and famine will descend upon the earth
To hide them, thus they mind their words
Guard the truth with the dexterity of Prometheus***
And it shall follow as morning the night
No soul will discover our perilous plight

*Zeus deposed his Father Cronus. He then drew lots with his brothers Poseidon and Hades. Zeus won the draw and became the supreme ruler of the gods.

**In Greek mythology, Stentor was a herald during the Trojan War. His voice was loud.

***In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan, the supreme trickster, and a god of fire.

There’s No Place Like Home

There’s no place like home
Be it ever so humble
Ah but the price will be too much
See how money now flows to the endlessly rich estate sellers
They live by the hammer
And triumph when someone can buy a dream
But for Ernest Maverick
The dream is a nightmare
Retrenched by age when he was still quite young
Forced to sell
Could not pay the mortgage
Lives now on welfare
Alone and divorced
Children now of age
And away busy with worldly affairs…
For him
Rent is a bondage to ruthless vendors
Whose undue power
Controls your very existence
Your own garden now
Is an elusive, intangible fantasy
As is a free standing residence à la maison de Monsieur Toad*
Phooey to worldliness!
Even a Big Mac delivered these days
Tests his finances
So how could he buy a dwelling place?
Yet life goes on, doesn’t it?
The alternative remains forbidden
But to some only just…
Ay, there’s the rub
Hamlet would probably understand Maverick’s troubles
But Chen Wang
Billionaire investor from Hong Kong
Would be his only model left for the purchase a home

*Like Mister Toad’s house

The Wizard of AUS Speaks

We have a plan
And we’ll approach it
In a considered and responsible way

Transparency will continue
You can see through our plans

Yes
We have a plan
We’ll be ruined if we don’t and be ruined if we do

100% supported by our government
Transparency will continue
You can see through our plans

Thus floods will still flow
Fires will still burn
Tempests will still rage
Grass will still die
Oceans will still sweep away our houses

Transparency will continue
You can see through our plans

All will be well
In our best of all possible worlds
We will apply technology
Yet to be invented
Thus emissions will come down through choice
63,000 new jobs in mining and industry

Yes
We have a plan
100% supported by our government
Transparency will continue
You can see through our plans

Thus floods will still flow
Fires will still burn
Tempests will still rage
Grass will still die
Oceans will still sweep away our houses

Yes
We have a plan
100% supported by our government
Millions in investment in steel and aluminium
Explosive growth in technology

Boom!

Transparency will continue
You can see through our plans

Thus floods will still flow
Fires will still burn
Tempests will still rage
Grass will still die
Oceans will still sweep away our houses

So let it be.

Truly yours,

Colonel Wimp

Advocate of Unintended Stupidity

royciebaby