Poison to your lips
Marketed as a choice
Whilst they monetize free will
They claims to numb the pain
but it just delays the agony
No one want to kiss the decade lips
Or touch the smoke ridden fingers
Inhale the smoke
Exhale your future
The posion spreads to those around you
Addicted to the feeling
Stuck with the consequences
cough up the black tar of yesterday
Sacrifice your tomorrow
Who do I owe a heartfelt thank you to for inventing Scrabble?
Alfred Mosher Butts, an unemployed architect invented it.
He named it Lexiko, then re-named it Criss-cross words.
Then renamed it to Scrabble.
I also owe a thank you to James Brunot
Because Brunot, an avid game lover, marketed Scrabble.
He sold it to Macy’s in 1948.
Bet he was glad because he lost $500 the first time he tried to sell it.
Over one hundred and fifty million Scrabble games have been sold.
I have at least ten of them.
Freedom, a stolen patent by the white man
Seen as a capitalistic venture,
Marketed towards those deemed ‘inferior’
Not seen as a right, but as a luxury
Tied with the ribbon of controlled hierarchy -
To keep black in a constant state of survival,
And the white in a state of insecure power -
Externally polished, but internally cracking
A systemic imbalance weakened by unease
Freedom a currency owned by the corrupt
Used to dictate societal roles -
A way to systemise racial control
A way to protect the weapon of inequality
Reducing the oppressed to desperation -
Of basic human rights
A sadistic trait of the oppressor -
Watching the loss of our dignity in order for our humanity
A history of embarrassment, forced onto our ancestors
All to distract from their inner battles of inferiority
A secret they won’t tell, they’ll decree it as impossible
Despite a history of targeted discrimination
Despite a lifetime of oppression
All because black people are everything, they will never be
Dear Belarus
We need a truce
From the deceptive abuse
Balloons in flight
We all see the commerce sight
Bringing packs of smoke
Sounding like a crooked joke
When they drop
Stop
Think what they will do to our future crop
Using those former theatrical cool props
Known to charm
Reality doing harm
Luring youth to a picture filled with power
Cowboys and planted flowers
Puffing away
Later who will pay
Believing the marketed, product to sell
Distorting human blood cells
Paving a pathway through hell
Still weary
Our other theory
Raisin
About this floating invasion
Where territory gets its mark
Sending a message in the dark
We can shoot them down
If they do not turn around
And go home
All alone
Pondering everything
Especially who has the talent to sing
BREAKING: [WEALTHY VENTURE CAPITALIST] BUYS
[PLOT OF LAND] FOR [INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION]
[CIGARETTES] AND [TYLENOL]
[TORNIQUETES] AND [ALCOHOL]
LOOPY DOOPY [LAUGHING GAS]
[COLORS] [FLAVORS] [SASSAFRAS]
FOR [FALSE SENSE OF FULFILLMENT], TRY
[ARTIFICIAL PRODUCT MARKETED TO MASSES]
[HOUSE FIRES] AND [CAR COLLISIONS]
[BURNING TIRES] [FIRST INCISION]
POKING AT YOUR [LUNGS] AND [HEART]
[PURVEYOR] TO SELL YOUR [PARTS]
[SELF MUTILATION] AND [SHEDDING SKIN]
IS ALL THE RAGE
[RUBBER HOSES] [PLASTIC GUMS]
[POWER DRILLS] AND [OIL DRUMS]
[SYNTHETIC SOLES] AND [FAT PAYCHECKS]
[POLYESTER] AND [LATEX]
LIMITED TIME SALE ON [INORGANIC BODY PARTS]
AND [FAKE IDENTITIES]
[PROSTHETICS] AND [FACTORIES]
[GASOLINE] AND [BATTERIES]
[CRACKS] AND [FISSURES] IN YOUR [SKIN]
DOUSED IN [DIRTY MEDICINE]
Throughout a program playing so
Or the streaming of a show,
Commercials advertise the new...
Broadcasting to me and you.
Only seconds long, they toss
Their message out to get across.
Straightforward - sometimes with humour
To appeal to the consumer.
Marketed products for sale...
New lines of recent retail.
Variations of a flavour
Or something similar to savour.
Through jingles and spoken word...
Business making itself heard.
Near future events of outing
Made aware of - without shouting.
Samples of what can be seen
Coming soon to the big screen.
What television has in store
On channels, services and more.
Commercials may often employ
A sense of delay and annoy.
Still, their purpose is promotion...
It is our choice to make notion.
Who made them richest?
Innovation made them richest, does it? Really?
Yes, what about people who are using and paying for that
Aren’t people who made them richest?
It’s the intelligence but people ignorance and no intelligence made them richest
Did they invent something which saves life, expands life and people were after it?
No, not really something which infact not really use for them but still we have been attracted or rather the perfect word used is marketed, hence they became rich.
I really not understand being engaged in a app, tool, machine made them richer rather than inventing a life saving drug.
Now, with the whoesome money around the world, they are dreaming to occupy the entire planet or being patent for another planet of this universe.
People are really good great and less intelligent, more life goes on by looking at others.
People loves to look at himself, so people nature made them richest.
No sailor of seas on a long journey,
Nor gold coffers, just words of poetry,
Yet, precious nuggets from the depths of sea.
Gone to explore as a graying old man,
O rudderless with no more than a pen,
And ready to return with empty can.
Ye have explored single minded till now,
And find it fruitless to take stock of wow
Bare of brickbats—a rule somehow to bow.
Shallow praises, if not hollow, of pen,
On a dunghill as if crackles stray hen,
Shrill, vague voices that few care to listen.
Cheer up, ye chase no goal-pointed measure,
Passing an idle time, nor tame leisure,
Let your pen toil for spirit’s sole pleasure.
_____________________________________
Tercet |01.05.2024| poet, introspection
Poet’s note: In an age when scores of things vie for people’s attention, when nothing succeeds unless promoted and marketed well, a pen ponders. The poem is classified as ‘Other’, but it should be called a ‘Tercet’.
What if Mona Lisa’s treated like corn?
In multiple forms made and marketed?
From one of a kind and mysterious born,
What if it steals no heart nor turns keen head?
Imagine several shades of dull grey,
And classics that meander out of hands,
What if Sun never sets nor ends the day?
Bouquet that passes hands till blossom bends.
Nature’s art’s not a blueprint of all space,
Nor can be stretched on and on till it yawns,
Art ‘s not a self portrait devoid of grace,
There’s no grace in wildly grown garden lawns.
No, you can’t milk and market art to death,
The mysterious can’t be mapped in one breath.
_________________________________________
Sonnet |05.07.2014, revised Sept 2022|
Poet’s Note: This sonnet was born in response to a suggestion an aficionado (and I am sure, a market buff) made some time back of popularizing old classic paintings by making their prints and marketing widely.
With apologies to Albert Camus
I once was a circus strongman,
Sovereign of midway spectacles.
I wore a leopard-skin loincloth
And a lion-claw necklace.
My club was seasoned hardwood.
I proudly dragged my knuckles
Through the sawdust and straw.
I wrestled the orangutan
And boxed the kangaroo.
I tore phone books in half
With my teeth.
I became a star promotion
With elevation from sideshow freak
To a main ring attraction.
My charisma was marketed
By carnival barkers and snake oil shills.
My future in show biz seemed bright.
My manner was summertime light,
And then came the fall.
I am a product -
made, packaged and marketed…
past my use-by date?
Written: May 2014
Thank God for vegetarians there is more meat for me
just wish those militant vegans would let me be
It's not that I don't like vegetables I'm easy to please
just flavor that pot of green beans with a dab of bacon grease
But now they made plant based meat marketed as fit to eat
packed with chemicals and fat so your taste buds taste a treat
At first it was Burger King now they got KFC
honestly for meat eaters it sounds like preaching
Real seafood, poultry, pork and beef I desire to consume
and for eating almost anything adding bacon makes room
Barbecue it, grill for sure, roast or frying pan
for the smell, flavor and taste of meat I am your man
Fake meat just doesn't sound right eat a salad instead
but put my salad on a thick hamburger between buns of bread
Feel free to eat what you like but don't mess with my menu
I want crispy golden fried chicken, not bite into a glob of tofu
I wonder just when did I start to buy
All these lies they marketed under truths guise
How could they slander my innocent beauty
And make me feel like looking good was a duty!
7.08.2021
Want to cancel your student loan debt?
Sixth call about it this week.
If I had an outstanding student loan
it would be fifty years old by now.
I read their texts and roll my eyes.
The next text comes in.
Want to add two inches to your willy?
If I did it would be a whopping two inches.
A happy jazzy song about tampons shouts at me from the TV.
Please take me back to the olden days, the fifties and sixties.
When none of this stuff was marketed on TV or on a telephone.
red rose and chocolate are common place,
do no justice to someone with your grace,
pricey perfumes that are marketed to charm,
but smother the odours that in love form,
there are designer handbags, scarfs and shoes,
many pretty garments that one can choose,
but I know these will hold you no appeal,
for someone like you it is no big deal,
then how shall I profess my love, do say!
when stood at your door on Valentine’s day?
should I play you a song on violin?
or should I dance with you, your love to win?
perhaps a candle lit dinner for two?
so I can hold your hands and look at you!
I am love sick, lost, utterly confused!
I know you are not easily seduced,
so here is my love posted through your door,
filled with kisses!.... ask if need anymore!
1st placement
Written 8th January
Brian Strand sponsored
All yours Feb(9) contest
18 lines with 10 syllables each line
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