eric sundin

Just dismiss those with an accent
every one a malcontent!
Let’s pathologize their dissent
never justly they lament

As accountable to no one
no need to be acquitted
Does not matter what we have done
accomplished or omitted

Americans don’t apologize
nor are we ever to be blamed
We always prevail, don’t compromise
Patriots are never ashamed!

Let’s always take this stand
against all critique:
Dismiss it out of hand
or bespeaks we’re weak

+)
-apologize = “I will never apologize for the United States. I don’t care what the facts are. I’m not an apologize-for-America kind of guy” – President George H W Bush
-we = here: patriotic, jingoistic Americans

edited 10/14/2026  1510

Late summer rain
in moonlit night
Here as quatrain
restrained polite

Lightly splatters
agony smoothed
Softly patters
restive hearts soothed

Flows off eaves
warm gently mild
Drips off leaves
in shades beguiled

edited 09/06/25 0735

Finding Gothenburg pedantic
he ever since childhood quested West
to horizons thought romantic
hence peered over the edge of the nest

Early he inclined to manic
so sailed off to The New World
but proved no trip Magellanic
merely cruised in restless whirl

Stranger to Reality
so when he did arrive somewhere
never with finality
did he find a tangible ‘here’

Thus ‘far away’ shall not singly endow
but he’s no longer condemned to roam
Now he can at last elatedly avow
that with wife & kids he found his home

+)
-Gothenburg = in his youth a major port & shipbuilding site on the Swedish West coast
-Magellanic = after Ferdinand Magellan, the great navigator
-pedantic = unimaginative (thought he wrongly in his youth)

edited 06/10/26 1630

Tell, has our Species ever met
someone that so hogs our time?
Anything like the Internet
that so dominates our prime?

Anything as facile as the Smart Phone
enticing indulgent seclusion?
where we are never & always alone
in such tantalizing collusion?

The hapless Post-Millennial Centaur
gallops wildly in oblivion
arrayed in alienation’s splendour
til crashed in future obsidian!

edited 12/01/23 1005

130911-F-KZ812-158

Taking off for way up there high
Sleekly winged global bullies
their ‘spreading Freedom’ gone awry:
Creating more enemies.

Fuselage & uniforms gleaming
still each plane a deranged scorer.
While patriots cheering & beaming:
dropped bombs tear off limbs in horror.

The Nation Indispensable
turned the most reprehensible

+)
-scorer = a player who makes a score in a game or contest
-winged global bullies = here: B-52 bombers

edited 12/27/23 1610

Why flailing in futility
when beckons the other way:
Of living in tranquility
not succumb to racking fray

Why persevere in mimicry
when beckons the other way:
To live in authenticity
not just in escapist play

Why upbraid in ubiquity
when beckons the other way:
Living in equanimity
gathers up Life’s full bouquet

+)
-equanimity = mental or emotional stability or composure, especially under tension or strain
-ubiquity = the state of seeming to be everywhere at once
-utility = the quality of being of practical use

edited 04/26/24 0610

Back then had seemed remote, unknown
would seem like fatuity
when up on to these shores tossed, blown
but since turned fortuity

By winds, were they happenstance
brought me in disaffect
On waves, were they circumstance
in life I was shipwrecked

Back then I was downed, almost drowned
Since then blessed on dry steady ground

+)
these shores = here: the US Pacific Northwest

edited 06/22/22 1230

I did not become that leader of men
that mighty lion roaring in his den

Not pumped up enough my ego
or perhaps lacking gumption?
Feeling too stiff in tuxedo
or bothered by compunction?

Feeling guilty of indulging
while others ail & tumble?
Loath to proclaim with chest bulging
while trying to fake humble?

Too deficient a Philistine
to travel by limousine?
Too concerned with the unforeseen
bored with intrigues Byzantine?

Or perhaps, putz
just lacking guts?

+)
-Byzantine = characterized by elaborate scheming and intrigue
-den = the lair or shelter of a wild animal, especially a predatory mammal
-Philistine = a person who not only ignores all conditions of life which are not her own but also demands that the rest of humankind should fashion its mode of existence after her own
-putz = a stupid, foolish or ineffectual person; engage in inconsequential or unproductive activity

edited 03/08/22 0730

Flows irascibly
in eternal refrain
stains indelibly
life’s suffering & pain

How we breathe
in temptation
how we seethe
for redemption

Both fear & hope us urge
in unyielding distinction
back & forth on the verge
until our own extinction

Life fleetingly lets us think we have won
while it decides when each of us is done

edited 09/08/25 0725

Are we placed here to get along
to act with sincerity
to stand up against what is wrong
in strong solidarity?

If put on Earth to share
how are we doing?
If put on Earth to care
how is it going?

Rather elbows sharp
mostly ‘me first’?
Don’t we harp & carp
our grudges nursed?

We seem stuck estranged
Since when? No mystery
for not much has changed
believe our history:

Humans hardly humane
as far as Species
We grab, lie, cheat & feign
& drain like leeches

edited 02/08/25 1535