I’ve got some tea for y’all,
but I’m not sure you can handle it.
This isn’t the kind you just listen to —
you’ve got to understand the weight of it,
the seriousness,
the intensity of what I’m about to say.
You once told me
that as long as I’m happy, you’d stand by me.
But right now, it’s deeper than happiness.
Being around her doesn’t just make me smile —
it brings me peace.
The kind of peace
like water resting quietly in a pot.
She once told me she feels safe around me.
And that alone said a lot.
She’s a Proverbs 31 woman, no doubt.
Not because she flatters me.
Not because she opened the door of her life to me.
But because she truly carries herself
like an ideal woman.
In my mind, that’s where she lives now.
And I hope one day
she finds it worthy enough
to sign the contract for permanent residence.
Make me a proud man among my kinsmen.
Lift my name high in the circle of my boys.
Place a crown upon my head…
And allow me —
allow me the honor
of making her my queen
poor
compliments
abound
nothing
put
into
words
peeling
stucco
fading
into
the unconscious
an
absence
of
atmosphere
careless
sentiments
of
the
austere
too
vague
surreal
elementary
&
the
unreal
From a favourite spoon or pet,
AI’s turned to cutlery set.
From wholesale flattery,
To flat sycophancy,
To queries, easy balls to bat.
From a fish-catching stork,
From plain spoon to warped fork,
True pet nor yet vigilant cat.
_____________________________
Happenings | 06.12. 2025 | cat, fish, flattery, humour, truth, limerick
Note: A study reveals that AI, ‘agreeing much more than not, sucks up to people’. Even more than people sucks up to each other in face of vested interest. Their answers often border on sheer flattery. Its performance much below the expectations. It seems to have promised much more than can deliver.
It is you I am seeking for frost,
the icy balance to my flame;
Flow flickers into wildfire,
anchoring you to me;
Waltz of opposites,
full flattery
will upend
any
girl.
I hold it quite tattered
To have someone flattered,
All the time, some John mattered:
Such Johns are soon scattered!
Many still call me 'Prof',
Thank God some would just cough,
Saying it in a voice rough
Shows of being The Gruff...
Then failed is flattery
And charged my battery
While I dare mystery
Far from the jittery...
Then, the oft flattered
Is the oft battered.
Like a deadly drug, it makes us dance
Put our nose in the air, turn our backs .
Craven souls, want another chance.
Walking over friends, we call hacks?
On, yes we sign, love, but mean it not!
How many trophies can I win ~ I want!
More flattery, please, as we do begin,
On this racetrack of pride,self loved sin!
Classical poets here, very despised.
Only new poetry forms have a place.
We want only our names in the skies.
Self-aggrandizement, a sad disgrace.
4/19/2023
Flies buzz
mosquitoes sting
I try to whack them
they both have wings
Audiences roar
Politicians sing
The media attacks them
They duck the arrows, the slings
Speaking the truth is difficult
that's why everyone practicing flattery!-
they said
But I said-
Flattery is most difficult than speaking the truth!
They asked. how?
I replied-
To be flatterer need huge diplomatic shrewd knowledge
where to be the truth need naturalness in character!
© Mahtab Bangalee
Chattogram
04/07/2021
There was an old sauce chef from Killarney,
Whose Irish stew, was flavoured with blarney.
While he quaffed bottles of hock,
That was infused with shamrock.
Which spiced up his special bouquet garni.
3 / 1 / 2021.
For the St. Patrick's day contest.
Sponsor. L Milton Hankins.
Assign region flattery gauges?
Silly but let’s try anyway.
The Scottish slather it on.
The Germans withhold it.
It’s Irish blarney.
Overindulge
Compliment
Praise
As the blazing king from far eastern horizons
Glows and smiles on wee infant toils beneath,
He's by man's ever-sprawling greeting praised,
Basking in vast kudos by eyes and bared teeth.
The new sovereign savors every regal sign
As he arcs past the virgin noon's latent line,
Unwilling to pause despite cloud-born snags,
Undeterred by jealous dusk's advancing tags.
Against evening's envies moves that demigod,
Still unshaken by all enemy barriers miles high.
Into puffed twilight barricades he finally sinks,
And once-lauding eyes dim as doom taps nigh.
Like our gloom-deposed emperor here-above
Is each offspring born of mortals' carnal love.
Salutes of great joy hail them once they come,
And rise beyond midday into life's ebbing term.
When time's long-halted scythes finally strike,
Men's veiled flattery's replaced by cold dislike.
Well done, she said.
Smiling her biggest smile.
I have never seen anyone else wear it like that!
There are other ways to wear a skirt?
On a head? Or a shoulder perhaps?
You should buy it! She sang out gleefully.
It looks great! Another stranger told me.
Turn around! The other one said.
I pirouetted, in front of the three-way.
A stranger had asked me to, after all.
It looks great!
It looks darling!
No one has ever worn it that way before.
I look at the skirt….
On my waist.
Wondering what that means.
They do not let me leave without it.
Telling me I have never looked better.
Nothing like shopping at a store
Where the salespeople are on commission.
I will have my mother bring it back in the morning.
A skirt I loathe, but I am such a people-pleaser.
They hip-hip-hooray me as they take my credit card.
FLATTERY NOT KIND
play of Shakespeare
mad King Lear...fool —
a mere mirror
1/31/2019
Three daughters of King Lear. Cordelia would speak the truth. The other two killed the King with flattery winning an inheritance. They were traitorous thus a tragedy ensues.
I do not tolerate anyone who lies to me.
However, I do make an exception for flattery.
I know what a poem
looks like.
I know how to make
my prose look like verse.
A little tuck here,
an indent there,
et voila! It’s verse!
or worse ...
a pale imitation of seem.
(can I have some ice cream?)
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