Poetry – America – We need to talk!

Posted on by Opher

America – We need to talk!

 

America you need to listen to me!

I do not think you are being honest!

You are meant to be leading the free world!

What on earth is going wrong?

 

America, you are making me feel sick.

I worry about you.

You’ve become fake news.

You’ve lost all belief

Except in superstition and guns.

What is all this Deep State nonsense anyway?

 

America, you need to get your act together!

You are making a mess of things

And pissing off your friends.

 

America, do you really believe a billionaire

Cares about the poor.

Isn’t it obvious that he is using you?

 

America, I despair.

The beauty of your country is tainted.

You have become mean-minded, squalid

Violent, ugly and divided.

Whatever happened to your dream?

 

America, you were born out of ugliness,

Out of genocide and slavery,

But do you teach that in your schools?

Do you tell the real story of the Native Americans

And Africans?

Will you ever make amends?

 

America, why do you put butchers, warmongers

And slave owners on pedestals?

Why not artists and poets?

 

America, does this reflect your values?

 

America, I want you to listen.

 

Are you really the land of the free?

Is there freedom in the ghettos?

In working all hours to scratch a living?

In having no rights?

In being abused and used?

America, you have a strange idea of freedom.

Or is freedom something just for the wealthy minority?

 

America, where is your sense of fun?

Where’s the Jazz and Blues?

The Rock ‘n’ Roll?

The Black and White fusion?

 

America, are you heading back to the bad old days

Of lynching, of racism and slaves?

Do you really want walls?

Can you be happy with such gross inequality?

 

America, are you really letting the wealthy and powerful

Call all the shots?

 

America, I think it’s time you took your head out of the sand

And decided what sort of country you want to build;

An inclusive place or one built on division and hate.

America, I despair.

You are not being fair.

You’ve lost your direction.

 

America, you need to take a long hard look at yourself!

Are your schools educating

Or are you running on blind faith?

Are you all getting health-care

Or is it the survival of the richest?

Are you a country of opportunity?

Or a country of privilege?

 

Where did things go wrong America?

 

America, I am your friend, but you worry me.

 

Opher – 31.7.2020

Poetry – Tell Me Lies About Covid

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Tell Me Lies About Covid

 

Put your plain clothes thugs on my street.

Tell me that science is wrong.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Give your tax cuts to the wealthy.

Tell me it’s good for the economy.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Let me buy my semiautomatic.

Blame it on left-wing agitators.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Sanction the KKK and the NRA.

Tell me global warming’s a hoax.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Tell me experts always get it wrong.

That everything’s fake news.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Castigate the WHO and UN.

Break up Nato.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Cosy up to Putin and Kim,

Destabilise the EU

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Tweet to divide and hate.

Sack anyone who disagrees.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Pander to the evangelists.

Promise to employ the polluters.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Rake it all in.

Refuse to pay taxes.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Tell me this billionaire is down with the poor.

Practice your racism.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Lock up the immigrant kids.

Build a wall to keep out rapists.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Tell me how good it’s going to be.

How bad it could be.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Tell me all the news is fake.

That the polls are a lie.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Tell me voting’s a fraud.

That you’ll contest the result.

Tell me lies about Covid.

 

Opher – 31.7.2020

Poetry – Nothing is free

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Nothing is free

 

Everything has a price.

Nothing is free.

You always pay eventually.

That’s the reality of entropy.

The more sophisticated and complex

The greater the cost will be.

It’s the universal decree:

Nothing is free.

 

Opher – 28.7.2020

Poetry – I think it’s you and me

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I think it’s you and me

 

Who decides there’s a war?

I think it’s you and me –

Reacting to the facts we’re fed

By the powers that be.

 

Who fights in that war?

I think it’s you and me

Dying on the battlefield

For Queen and country.

 

Who loses a war?

I think it’s you and me.

Some gain wealth and power

But we live in austerity.

 

Opher – 29.7.2020

Poetry – Narrow Views and Ignorance

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Narrow Views and Ignorance

 

We don’t need science.

We don’t need experts.

We can just guess the truth!

 

They don’t know anything.

They always get it wrong!

Deep state elitist aloof.

 

We’ve got the bible!

We listen to Trump.

We’ve got the proof!

 

Opher – 28.7.2020

Poetry – The Plastic Jungle

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The Plastic Jungle

 

The flies are disappearing

The beetles are all going.

There are few caterpillars for the birds

It’s a sterile world we’re sowing.

 

It took five billion years

To create this interlocking mesh.

But it only took a few thousand

For us to create this mess.

 

With libraries of books,

Knowledge and civilisation.

We still do not understand enough

To correct this situation.

 

We seem content to let them go

Without a second thought,

While cluttering the plastic jungle

With the rubbish that we’ve bought.

 

Opher – 27.7.2020

Poetry -Out of Nowhere

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Out of Nowhere

 

It came out of nowhere,

Creating somewhere,

Getting bigger.

Then it will die.

 

It was not created,

Not planned,

With no direction.

It just happened.

 

It has constant laws

So immutable –

Create what we are,

Dictate what we do.

 

It is made of energy,

Matter and antimatter,

Quarks and rays,

Lots of space.

 

It has time.

Time isn’t constant.

Time stopped.

Time started.

 

We live in it.

We are of it.

It is in us.

We see it.

 

We cannot understand

How or why.

Or that permanence

Is the illusion.

 

Opher – 27.7.2020

Poetry – History repeats.

Posted on by Opher

History Repeats

 

History repeats.

Lessons are never learned.

Fascists arrogantly strut.

Our cities burn.

 

The racist chants

Echo down the streets.

Frightened people keep quiet,

Civilisation retreats.

 

Politicians stir,

Seeking power.

Behind locked doors

Poor people cower.

 

The tribal game

Is played out again.

Every single person

Feels the pain.

 

Opher – 27.7.2020

Poetry – 306 – John Phillips

Posted on by Opher

Another poem from John Phillips from his book ‘Shorts and Shots’.

306 were the number of soldiers executed by the British in the First World War. The reason given was desertion or cowardice. Many may well have been suffering from shell-shock.

 

306 – by John Phillips

 

Into the darkling, drizzling dawn;

Into the early-morning grey.

Strong arms to counteract the weakling legs,

He soiled himself,

But no-one notices and no-one cares.

 

Duty is King and Country;

Duty is all.

Blind to compassion, blind to emotion and fear.

Blinded to reason and doubt,

To conscience and remorse.

 

Into the empty morning.

Empty the faces that surround him;

Empty the words to define, to justify, to absolve.

Only the casket, the post, the pock-marked wall.

Only the blindfold and the final cigarette.

 

 

Poetry – Lost poems

Posted on by Opher

Lost poems

 

While our poems may seem lost,

Torn from our lips,

Loosed into the universe,

Released from their prisons

Within our dreams,

To fade into eternity;

They still exist

As murmurs on the breeze,

Ever quieter

But never gone,

For nothing created

Ever dies.

 

We are surrounded,

Engulfed

With the entire lexicon

Of humanity,

Of nature,

Of all life,

As it throbs

Through our veins,

Always.

For nothing is ever lost.

The past vibrates

Through the present.

Our dreams and poems

Live forever –

For as long as there is a breeze to carry them.

 

Opher 27.7.2020