Convalescing
From
“Civilization”
From the bloated, rude, crude, insatiable
Busy-for-naught
Businessmen,
Found me a plot
In a lost meadow
Where owls swoon
With dancing stars
And poplars rock
My hammock.
After two scores and ten, a stranger met a weary soul,
With scattered hair and a faded face, resembling a ghost.
“We have crossed paths before, I am certain,”
the stranger said in a trembling voice.
“Years of struggle have passed,
yet the standards of our nation have fallen low.
That is why a teacher like me appears this way.
Education has been handed over to businessmen
who honor no principles
and worship only money.
These wrinkles and crooked fingers
reflect the sickness of our social fabric.
We have lost our dignity
and the very purpose of our lives.
Now we labor endlessly,
chasing money in lonely silence.
The knowledge that once enlightened us
is now disregarded and disgraced.
Our goals have shifted,
our direction is lost.
Teachers are mocked, stripped of respect,
while the corrupt and notorious
are honored instead.
In a gentle but solemn voice,
the stranger declared:
“Pakistan must mend its ways
if it wishes to save the heart of education.”
With that, the stranger stepped out of the dark jungle
onto the straight path,
where light shone brightly
from the right corner of the forest.
1849
King Kamehameha
of the Kingdom of Hawaii
entered into the Treaty of Friendship
with the United States
1893
businessmen and sugar planters
overthrew the monarchy by forced abdication
of Queen Lili'uokalani
and United States troops invaded
the Hawaiian Kingdom
The Restoration Agreement
was never implemented
Business as usual!
The ship of dreams
Opulent surroundings
Fancy bed linens
Luxurious dinner plates and tablecloths
Gleaming virginal utensils
Dazzling crystal chandeliers
Polished walnut woodwork
Gold gilded fireplaces
Wardrobes ready for furs and dresses
An experienced captain
Eager staff
Bustling activity
Musicians, artists, businessmen aboard
High ranking officials, wealthy industrialists, celebrities
Cruising flawlessly in clear blue sea
A haven and heaven during the day
Easy sleeping and dreaming in the evening
J.P. Morgan was disappointed to have to cancel at the last minute
Four glorious days of sailing
Around Midnight April 15th, 1912 the Titanic struck an iceberg
The chunk of devilry slashed a three-hundred-foot gash in the hull
Haphazard evacuation ensued
First lifeboat could have held sixty-five people
It left with twenty-eight
The dream ship broke in half after filling halfway up with water
In two hours fifteen hundred people died
The majority of them froze to death in the North Atlantic
When anthro-privileged consumers
of massive monotheistic miscommunications
replace faith in compassionate StatesMen
and bipartisan StatesWomen
with vainglorious hope
for straight white supremacist BusinessMen
Then what might have been a healthy
polycultural democracy
has now become just another nationalistic
monoculturing kleptocracy.
Sacred EarthMother
does not define
what matriarchal yin Beauty is,
and yet S/He seems to refine
what patriarchal yang Ugly is not.
I really don’t know how long it has been
That parmesan comes shredded from businessmen
We need a president
To set the precedent
To help make America ‘grate’ again
We ride the sea of blue,
as the wind blew.
Mounds of white grew,
it is soap not glue.
Have you meet the three men?
Bill is a writer with a pen,
John is with businessmen,
Tom likes to watch TV in his playpen.
Three men in a tub,
plus one child in for a scrub.
They belong to a club,
the bath time dub-dub.
Fists so clenched
Face so red
Spit hitting my face
Was it something I said
I shouldn’t have touched your books
You’re worthless
You’re nothing
But I just wanted to look
You’ll never be anything
I always won the potato sack race
But the day you came I fell on my face
Frozen in shame, feeling so low
I looked up at your face
It said ‘I told you so’
All this time
I thought it was me
Sinking my own ships
I don’t deserve to succeed
Always failing at what I wanted to be
I finally realised
Whom you were talking to
I didn’t need to be in the room
Just you with you
What caused that self-loathing?
What happened back then?
Nobody wins a war except
Bankers and businessmen
I know you must have hurt
Couldn’t forgive yourself
So let me do it for you
So I can free myself
Flourish,
Flourishing as the sun shining you daily
Rejoicing as abundant rain watering your fields
and creating some dams
for farming fish and feeding your animals.
You are burgeoning in the eyes
of some lazy folks
who have big mouths
to talk senseless speeches in the streets
and forgetting their arable lands
which are fitting for industrial agriculture.
Flourish,
Oh! Laughing deafeningly sometimes
when I focus on some tête -à-tête debates
Which concern poverty in rich continent like Africa.
Some folks suffering because of some circumstances
and others dependence due to sluggishness.
Flourish,
DRCongo has more billionaire businessmen
and some politicians
who keep their money in their mansions
and banks
in Europe, Asia America and other African countries...
Other rich people hide their money under the grounds
than investing in industrial fishing and agriculture
and infrastructures to uplift
the economy of the Country.
June 23/2023
Written for poetry contest sponsored by
Constance la France
....F WORD CHALLENGE....
Taxi driver,
You don't know who you do it for
Every day, in and out
The eloping couple,
The rushing artist,
The drunken businessmen,
Strangers who might've once been friends in a past life,
Now bound by the bustling busyness of our modern-day
To take a few deep breaths in the shabby backseat of your taxi
To think of their failing marriage
Or their dinner plans for the night
And you, navigating your amber-coloured agent
Through the city
The suburbs
The almost country-side
The city, again
To take them to their harbour
Is there something worthwhile in that mundane monotony?
I wonder.
"A hand that gives receives"
Sad ! Sad to see we've been reduced to nothing but beggars
Lining up on the streets to receive
The same streets that we lined up our voices
Chanting out for change only to get weary, sit down & pick change
Call it short changed cause that's what it feels like
Giving up the long ball for today
Since we all looking out for ourselves
That change only feels like a drag to our progress
This days the streets are filled with businessmen
Yes businessmen ! Because they cash in on the sympathy
Only for them to go back to being "okay"
At night when they retire waiting for the next dawn
It's made the genuine voices get lost in the lines
Because they all look out to get something
Only to get broken promises and things not changing
Atleast money doesn't change, that's why they won't mind lose change
It hurts that this people could have had a life like any other
But because people lookin the other way
Policies ain't being implemented to the fullest
And making it even harder for persons with disabilities to get their daily needs
The PO£T
Throughout the world many nations,
possess their own stockpile of nuclear weapons,
all programed for very specific target destinations.
The general view of the population,
is that not one will ever be launched in any situation,
because the retaliation would mean planet earth's destruction,
and result with our own extinction.
Today powerful politicians, lawyers and businessmen,
are uniting worldwide for global elitism.
When they succeed world dominium,
every single one of those nuclear weapons,
will be at the fingertips of all of them,
and maybe they will launch every now and then,
only one, wiping out entire major populations,
just to show the world who is boss, discouraging any rebellion,
but then again, maybe nothing will happen,
but it's certainly something worth considering my friends,
because if we continue to remain complacent and do nothing,
there will be no prevention,
for this very potential, likely future of nuclear weapons.
Future Tomorrows
David J Walker
Gray is the color of Winters wind
January dressed for the occasion
Singing songs in dissonant tones
Dark and sparse the evening
I know one thousand places to go
I know the streets are calling
I know the whim of the businessmen
But soon the snow will be falling and
The moon will move beyond the clouds
To calculate the equation
Of a winter storm about to be born
Ignoring the evasion of
A winter breath as cold as death
An icy land of sorrows
Counting the haze of frozen days
Counting on future tomorrows
It is the cause of all acts of terrorism,
including but not limited to suicide bombings.
It is the cause of most crimes running rampant in all nations,
including but not limited to child exploitation,
human trafficking, mostly women,
but generally both male and female when trafficking children.
It is responsible for all the wars throughout the world presently exploding,
making more richer and more powerful CEOs of war profiteering corporations,
including but not limited to all the corrupt politicians,
and lawyers and so called "Honest" businessmen.
It is responsible for all who have ever been,
poverty stricken, starving and dying from malnutrition.
Without the need for money all of the above would no longer exist.
If we are to evolve for the better, society must go moneyless,
with a new set of values also established,
that isn't motivated by greed or monetary profit.
I'll say it again like I've said it before,
"Money must one day go the way of the dinosaur,
or it will be the cause of all of our peril for sure."
Welcome to the Time Warp
Does it seems that history seemingly repeats
Where the simplicity of life is so rare to find
And the kindness of heart finds no retreats
No sharing of wealth, greediest of mankind
Where fear amongst the masses abound
Perpetrated by forces designed to protect us
Where human rights are lost without a sound
Our way of life changed, forever superfluous
Freedom of speech is silenced by the stroke of a pen
Unsure of what we’re told, will these lies never end
Being controlled by the wealthiest of businessmen
And our losses of freedom too much to comprehend
Welcome to the time warp, once again we all fall prey
We become just pawns to an unjust power once again
Perhaps it’s time to take a stand, one voice have our say
The time has come to speak freely, if not now, then when
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