Gen X or the
MTV generation.
See a big growth in the
Dept. of education.
A generation of latchkey
Kids home alone.
Rocky hits the box office,
With Sylvester Stallone.
New music with attitude,
The intro to Punk Rock.
Women working,
punching a time clock.
They heard Heavy Metal
Being born.
They witnessed the troops
In Desert Storm.
The first generation to play
Video games.
They watched the Challenger
explode into flames.
Another great movie the
Breakfast Club.
They were the era for
The War on Drugs.
They saw the emergence of
The AIDS epidemic.
They remember terrorism
at the Munich Olympics.
No more Berlin Wall to separate
the east and west sides.
They remember Jim Jones,
And his mass suicide.
They can come off
As a little cynical.
On social issues they
Are more liberal.
The Exxon oil spill,
They tried to lie.
The divorce rate hits,
An all-time high.
They had cable TV to
keep them company.
They experienced a
Single-parent family.
Turbo1904 ?
Categories:
exxon, childhood, memorial,
Form: Rhyme
Big oil has its hands in our pocket
Pump prices rose like a rocket
It was just a ruse
Designed to confuse
The voters who vote with their wallet
Inflation to voters does smell
And affects what comes from a well
Now prices can drop
Since our vote didn’t stop
Long-term funding for Exxon and Shell
Author's Note: Isn't it funny how inflation picks up before an election, when we know it has long-term origins? I can't say it's an oil conspiracy, but when I was in the state of Washington at a small-town celebration this summer, one of the booths had a guy asking me what I thought of paying so much for gas. Of course he had no plan to fix the situation...just using inflation to get votes for his political party (the one in bed with big oil). While the election was not as great as big oil had wanted, they still have wealth flowing for now--even though their plastics and fuels are destroying the world. They could have faired better if they won the senate and got more conservative judges in place, so they're already working on 2024.
Categories:
exxon, humor, money, political, repetition,
Form: Limerick
We exploit her gifts, polluting, robbing.
Mother earth has a soul and we've
all heard her sobbing..
Too many species are now extinct.
We need to slow down, reassess, think..
Exxon, Shell, Chevron need new tools,
stop their reliance on our fossil fuels.
These companies must end their
greedy ambitions. They are responsible
for 71% of our global emissions..
We've known that it's coming.
Don't act perplexed.
We could be the next Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Man has been so blessed with this beautiful planet,
for goodness sakes, lets top taking her for grant it.
Categories:
exxon, 1st grade, earth,
Form: Light Verse
Strange signpost of circling destiny - an Exxon station,
perched at the crossroads of State Highway 95
and Farm to Market Road 1331.
Almost certainly without its own knowledge
serving as the gateway to Arcadia.
Where life may be older in the body, but boasts youth eternal
in the mind, heart, and soul.
Where power, prestige, and wealth all wither away
in the soft sunshine of familial love.
Strange paradox that from the sunbeams of a quiet Czech church
may come the vital fuel to power an engineer's heart
in the midst of the sparkling glass
of a city that never knows silence.
For now, I am not sure whether I borrow from paradise
to vainly chase its specter -
or whether I borrow from one ideal to build another
which may not be entirely worse ...
though there is no denying that it is different.
There may be pains in Arcadia, though they seem so far away
to this weary man on a late spring day.
8 May 2022
Categories:
exxon, paradise,
Form: Free verse
Your poems have
nice images.
I can't use them.
They don't drive trucks,
weld, or pour cement.
I can't wear them
like boots in the snow.
They won't keep my head
dry in the rain.
I like your images
but
don't try to pull a
fast one.
A slight of pen
quicker than the eye.
A twist of tongue
dredged from dead scrolls.
Your images are good
but I'm tired.
If they were on TV
I'd turn the channel.
I don't think of your
poems during the World Series.
You will become famous,
appointed to a marble history,
far removed from the slamming
screen doors,
the runny noses of crying
babies.
Elitist pedagogues
will force feed the young
on you.
America will hate you
to your effete marrow,
and Exxon won't sponsor
you.
Published Black Buzzard Press - 1982
Categories:
exxon, humor, humorous, image, nice,
Form: Light Verse
Remember this? On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker hits a
reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, resulting in an enormous oil spill.
Though there were no human victims of the crash, hundreds of miles
of pristine coastline became coated with oil and thousands of sea birds, mammals and fish perished in the disaster.
Master of Disaster
At games may be hard to master
Difficult and you did have a disaster
What up next will they try to cook
That like this whole world was shook
And off the wall fell all of our plaster.
James Horn
Categories:
exxon, allegory, analogy,
Form: Limerick
It was a day like all the rest as off to work I went
Surely to face a new test for as such is life meant
But this time as I went I prayed in a different way
And the message He sent I'll never forget that day
On 95 nearing the airport and that ever present smell
Roll up the windows I exhort passing over Exxon and Shell
Instead of my daily prayer, today I just sung out His praise
And over the bridge I made my way as God would again amaze
I closed all of the windows and I even shut off the vent
When up through my nose I get this beautiful rosy scent
Like a funeral parlor or flower shop the scent was so strong
And this scent just wouldn't stop for that bridge is pretty long
Immediately I had recognized in always knowing of His Way
So I wasn't really surprised yet "in this" this is what I pray
I need not even one sign though I have seen so many signs galore
"Lord, give to them mine, You've given me so much I need for nothing more"
Categories:
exxon, rose,
Form: Rhyme
Mug of Joe
Tarp hung low
Living under an over pass
Is better than dancing in jail
Day old butts
And dumpster meals
A cart with just three wheels
Got a place staked out
On the corner of Main
Cardboard on my chest
Says, “Bless you anything will help”
I dyed my haired in a Exxon
And took a shower in the rain
Going to take it to California
Where the weather suits my clothes
It’s too damn hot in Birmingham
And the women are so cold
Old Dirt Clod Betty won’t
Share her wine
And Lawanda is a *****
A man like me don’t have the time
To put up with this ********
So I tell them they can sleep alone
And chew on and old dog bone
I know one day I’ll make it home
It’s not that far away
Because I am a lucky man
I got no bills to pay
You see I’m saving up my money
To get a V.A. loan
And buy a condo in East L.A.
Categories:
exxon, addiction, character, city, crazy,
Form: Free verse
We should rename America and call it Exxon.
Salute their new flag at the rise of dawn.
To ten of our highest ranking officials, Exxon is their top contributor.
So do you really think that they will look for another oil distributor?
Have you looked at our banking system lately, it is a joke.
We should have listened to president Jackson when he spoke.
He threatened to resign if we brought corporate banking to this nation.
He said banks would control the government and enslave this generation.
He couldn't have been more right, but we did it anyway.
Now look at us, were in debt that we can never pay.
I don't know what your view on this is, but I hope you can see,
none are more hopelessly enslaved, than those who falsely believe they are free.
Categories:
exxon, epic
Form: Rhyme
Tears in the tar
carried far
cry the dolphin
to a passing star
...help us…
see the gulls
who now don’t fly
see the whales
who search for sky
coast of destruction
while they all stand by….
experts tweet
executives meet
“fool proof plans”
don’t mean a thing
while seagulls die
without their wings…
drilling
is it really
what you want?
Gulf coast spill
and Ecuador
the Exxon Valdez
the Queensland shore
yet new drills poised
to poison some more
... what are we asking for…
b!tch and preach
don’t mean a thing
if we can’t walk our talk
without convenient rings
tones explode
and we’re to know…
that a saying was penned
and is so true…
“we can’t have the cake
if we sh!t in the stew…”
to make real change…
is to change how we ‘do’.
Categories:
exxon, nature
Form: I do not know?
Herded on to reservations.
Their chiefs humiliated.
International witnesses killed and abused.
Geneva conventions are ignored.
Oslo agreements are trashed.
United Nation covenants and agreements denied.
Numbers were written on their foreheads.
Their homes and olive trees are destroyed.
They are killed at a rate of four to one.
There seems to be only one solution
for a people whose capacity for survival is so great.
Even their women sacrificed themselves
to get your attention to the depth of their grief.
They have already had their Trail of Tears and
there is no where for them to go.
Extermination, genocide are
the traditional methods
for getting rid of peoples in the way.
So, who will start the ovens for Palestinians?
I know that Exxon will supply the gas.
Categories:
exxon, political
Form: Free verse
Celebrate!!
Oil for all!!
Bring a cup
Have your fill!!
Black gold for all!!
Pelicans are oil coated,
Ready to fry!
Black moon sand is
Free for all!!
The oil is still
Lingering on
Alaska's shore
Twenty-one years later
Clean up of the
Exxon-Valdez spill, still not clean!!
Dear politicians please help!!!
The oil still flows like black death!
Categories:
exxon, nature, political, recovery from...
Form: Free verse