Poetry – Throwaway life

Posted on by Opher

Throwaway life

I look to the clouds to see a bloated vulture

Waiting to feast on this disposable culture.

Cut to the quick with a razor-sharp knife

Another empty moment in a throwaway life.

Busy going nowhere.

Devouring the planet.

Morals of a fungus

Manners of a gannet.

Opher – 9.9.2021

I despair when I look at human beings. We are so greedy for wealth and power we would destroy the future to get more.

It’s a long history of abuse, war, torture, cruelty and destruction.

Are we getting any better?

It seems not.

We are either brainwashed into fanatical religious fantasy or living lives of mindless hedonism.

Where is the intelligence? The appreciation of creativity, wonder and nature?

Why are we either consumed by greed, fanaticism or trivia?

Sometimes I think there’s no hope.

The world is the mess we have made of it.

Intelligent?? I think not!!

Should we blame Men for the mess the world’s in? War, greed, pollution, devastation, cruelty – the climate crisis???

Posted on by Opher

We should blame men for the climate crisis

Lucy Ellmann on 5,000 years of male-led environmental destruction

The Cyclops Steel Works in Sheffield in the mid-19th century.
Men ‘are they the instigators of the ruinous Industrial Revolution, which led to the vast contamination of air, water and land’. The Cyclops Steel Works in Sheffield in the mid-19th century. Photograph: Science & Society Picture Librar/SSPL via Getty Images

LettersThu 29 Jul 2021 18.10 BST

Arwa Mahdawi claims that men are not responsible for climate change (Don’t blame men for the climate crisis – we should point the finger at corporations, 27 July). This lets men off the hook a little too lightly. Not only are they the instigators of the ruinous Industrial Revolution, which led to the vast contamination of air, water and land, but men have also spent the last 5,000 years fighting, killing, colonising, enslaving, marauding, and yelling about football.

Who invented the capitalist system that Mahdawi agrees is so destructive? And who owns the corporations she so rightly condemns? Men.

So, no need then to quibble with the cited Swedish study. Of course we shouldn’t blame individuals. We should blame all men.
Lucy Ellmann
Edinburgh

As a man I am tempted to agree with her. Men through their greed and belligerence have created this mess.

The question is whether women would have done it any better. Looking at examples like Thatcher and Priti Patel. I reckon they’d have made as much of a mess.

But then there is Jacinda Ardern.

And most of us men are not uncaring, thoughtless, vicious, greedy bastards. We just keep voting the bad ones into power – and women are just as guilty of that!!

Poetry – Telling the Truth

Posted on by Opher

Telling the Truth

The dead don’t talk

But their wounds tell a story.

Animals can’t talk

But their ivory speaks volumes.

Trees can’t talk

Bure bare soil tells the tale.

Humans can talk

But their words are often lies.

Opher 28.10.2018

There’s a disaster going on. It’s all around us. But if you ask about it you’ll only be told untruths.

There’s wanton destruction going on in the name of profit; in the name of progress.

Money never tells the truth.

The Nasty part of human nature!

Posted on by Opher

There is a nasty part of our psychological make-up.

History is littered with torture chambers, vile weapons of torture and gleeful crowds at public hangings, public torturings, burnings, drownings and cruel acts.

History is littered with the most horrendous torture and cruelty towards animals – baiting, fighting and skinning alive.

History is littered with ruthless people seizing power and wealth regardless of the impact on others and delighting in causing misery.

Most animals are better than this.

How do we overcome this?

Poetry – Who are they?

Posted on by Opher

Who are they?

They’re carving up the world

For economic gain.

Creating war and havoc

Bribing those who reign.

Putting in their puppets

Who give them all the cash

Bolstering their power

With crops and burn and slash.

Opher 28.10.2018

There’s a game being played. They create countries out of lines on maps and put in leaders who will toe the line.

All that matters is money and power.

They are carving up the world.

Poetry – I’m not a player

Posted on by Opher

I’m not a player

I’m a Mah-jong counter

A piece upon the board

Pushed back and forth

By those who can afford.

They move me here.

They move me there,

As is their desire.

I have no say in anything

They buy the guns for hire.

They fit me with the blindfold

The earplugs and the gag.

And when the game is over

I’m back inside the bag.

Opher 28.10.2018

There are big forces at work in the world shaping our destinies. They are the major players. Sometimes my impotency becomes so obvious.

How did they get there? What is their aim?

Do I agree with what they are doing?

No I don’t.

It’s just money and power.

It’s a game.

I dream of being a pawn! If only. I can’t even get on the board.