eric sundin

Scripted snappy talk ‘on the surface’
passes now for civility
like spouted in customer service
with breezy ease & certainty

While on screens placidly self absorbed
aloof from solidarity
is this where we think ourselves adored
embraced in popularity?

Shall (in a world harshly hackable)
head down texting keep us placable?

+)
placable = capable of being placated, pacified, or appeased; forgiving

edited 06/06/24 0820

Now my life (on whose behest?)
is wantonly waning
am adrift, feeling bereft
of what joy remaining

On many days flatly harrowed
unmeritoriously
up paths steep & ever narrowed
shuffling laboriously

Led a life inglorious
deftly dissipative
Even found notorious
as opinionative

edited 08/17/24 1820

You may ask what I’ll be doing today
of what is left for me to aspire?
If listlessly wiling the day away
why would anyone want to retire?

Gone now ‘prime of life’ energetic
barely just passably kinetic

But no, am not mired in an impasse
Boyle’s law explains it in this way:
Chores behave like decompressing gas
while few they fully fill each day

edited 12/01/21 0750

No one may be a belittler
of the Evils brought by Hitler!

Still what is now holding sway
in ignorance fabled
to History’s sheer dismay
others are now labeled:

Like Hitler! Not like but worse
claim elites Americanized!
Unhinged, untenable curse
lie kept alive propagandized

edited 06/21/22 1540

When death by beheading
just the targets die
No bystander shredding
when children’s limbs fly

Nor any hospital wrecking
cultural desiccation
drone obliterated wedding
whole country devastation

Mass killings industrialized
by U.S. Exceptionalism
propagandized as ‘civilized’
though slaughter by Imperialism

Casualties mere ‘collateral’
when by Western Technology
While ‘war crime’ by Those Fanatical
of differing ethnology

Still each death an execution
under whatever delusion
In one by one retribution
or in conveyor profusion

edited 05/24/22 0740

Looming starkly dark
on lonely heath
hear death’s howling bark
with growling teeth

Warm colors faded to bleached
erstwhile joy jaded to sorrow
Voices chalk on blackboard screeched
as we cower from the morrow

Outlook cruel, bleak
no place for the weak

+)
heath = here: earthly life

edited 10/14/23 1015

From turgidity no rest
while life’s journey thwarted
Grab hold rigidly with zest
hurry, get it sorted!

So wake up, go & aspire
or find your life wasted
Do so before you retire
or suffer lambasted!

No peace found in breathless rushing
or pride felt from slack-jawed gushing

edited 09/06/24 1750

Sent to a friend encouraging her to get on with her painting:

Wonders she: what’s the big rush
what’s this your nagging plaint?
Won’t there always be a brush?
Won’t there always be paint?

Thus cheerfully we chime
by lingering lure:
There shall always be time!
But can one be sure?

Such hope may prove mere delusion
Don’t attempt another feint
and waste talent in confusion
Don’t tarry, get going paint!

Go ahead, show us your heart
do stare down your easel
allow us enjoy your art!
No more words of weasel!

edited 03/21/22 1020

Lives desiccated deprecated
desecrated by vanity
Human habitat depredated
with hubristic profanity

Most could surely have been averted
yet why do we not feel ashamed?
While a few moved for change concerted
most found wanting – but not all blamed

Too weak to act, lost heart, guts & shirts
Temperatures & oceans rise
Serving on children our ‘just deserts’
heaped in gleaming china of lies

+)
‘just deserts’ = (pronounced as if ‘desserts’) a punishment considered to be what the recipient deserves

edited 03/03/24 1035

Through fully opened sluice
words gush profusely
wave follows wave obtuse
ashore diffusely

Conveyed in smarmy smooth style
modulated, attuned
words customized to beguile
glibly, quickly communed

Words mindless of direction
locked in obduracy
empty of much reflection
pound in profligacy

If you take to heart much of what blurts
then you shall receive your just deserts!

edited 10/11/2026  0925