eric sundin

Brittle leaves, yellow, cerise
swirling, sailing, glowing
in boisterous chilly breeze
mischievously blowing

Flashing sun rays dash around
lightening Fall in dance
Intrepid trees soon ungowned
below sky’s swept expanse

In windblown farewell leaves leave worn
bare branches left to stretch forlorn

edited 10/15/24 1730

Images careening off keel
out-of-breath pitches twisted
in frenzied & frantic appeal
Any restraint resisted

Our attention usurped, wrested
in hugely bumped up gumption
Their vapid claims unattested
brought on in slick presumption

These ads of billions of dollars
bring neither rhyme or reason
just keep pouncing in crisp colors
Dance or consumer treason!

When speech & image
vile, while opaque
still pounce & scrimmage:
Time to awake!

edited 12/09/23 1130

Splurging on carbon speeds global warming
in solipsistic cupidity
Indignantly we waive off all warning
thrashing in torrid acridity

Earth’s plight worsens with rapidity
as we hide behind denial’s fig leaf
most arguments mired in quiddity
While turpitude bolsters beyond belief

… as we indulge & betray
what our children can’t defray

+)
-quiddity = an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections
-solipsism = extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one’s feelings, desires

edited 02/24/24 0920

Anton, aged one, seated in his elaborate stroller and Eric, his old neighbor & ground crew, meet for a morning chat, while Anton reflects:

Mom, Mom watch, watch me, Mom
handsome, unruffled.
Staying serenely calm
by binky muffled.

Mom, Mom watch, watch me, Mom
in my spacecraft seat.
With greatest of aplomb
hovering off street.

So cool by console, at controls
by all adult doubt unfazed.
Topping the baby pilot polls
my many enemies dazed.

But it can’t be a breeze
for my poor ground crew.
Eric leaning in askew
on his aging knees?

We’re two gregarious chaps
who banter when we meet
sporting similar slick caps:
The neighborhood elite.

(p.s. Mom:)
Admirers all keep rushing
squeaky voices gushing.
How do I avoid blushing?
Celeb’s role bit crushing.

edited 03/22/19 1725

Some 50 percent of U.S. dogs and cats are now overweight or obese shows a recent study conducted by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. But dogs and cats do have some catching up to do. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the percentage of human adults age 20 years and over who are overweight, including obesity, now stands at 69.2 percent (2009-2010)

On their chomping paths unswerving
lazy pets & owners self-coddling
plumb bodies waddle, out-curving
in ‘putting on weight’ role modeling

Hey humans, wheezing, grasping:
“Eat less, walk & don’t kvetch!”
Hey pets, out of breath gasping:
“Get up, out, run & fetch!”

Clearly pet & owner both
of diet & workouts loath

edited 01/15/23 1650

We grin while from all sides beset
gleaming gadgets stock-piling
slogging in usurious debt
but offers so beguiling!

When jokes rarely hilarious
what remains entertaining?
In crowds we fake gregarious
Clarity of thought waning

Jaded discouragement reigning
fizzled our aspirations
Interest, engagement feigning
parched by drought our flirtations

Energy too quickly drained
Events uninspiring
Faculties eerily strained
Even sleep turned tiring

Taste blandly the same most meals
Phone & computer hacked
Distracted by doltish deals
Life’s precious china cracked

So, would it not be overdue
to leave Life’s ‘silly season’
where way too much has gone askew
and instead pursue reason?

edited 10/28/23 1545

With aging it may prove opportune
willingly to depart the stage
with dignity to face our ‘high noon’
turn the age appropriate page?

Better renounce the charade
before boos & whistle
All performances shall fade
fidgety crowds bristle

Rather leaving still carried by cheers
spared humiliation, crying
if having been thrown out on our ears
midst rotten tomatoes flying

Step aside, pointless to feign
time to bring out the champagne!

+)
-high noon = here: facing something unavoidable if we aspire to some measure of courage & integrity; title of 1952 film

edited 02/13/23 1810

Sally’s nose, prose & fashion
how she’s just too cloying
Frank’s political passion
ain’t he too annoying?

But bothering with affinity
surely pure prickly vanity?
Best left to saints & divinity
not fallible humanity

We shan’t change them: She’ll sally forth
while he’ll keep on thinking he’s Njorth

+)
-Njorth = (Njörðr in Norse mythology) god of the sea, winds and prosperity
-sally forth = to suddenly rush forth

edited 02/19/23 0755

Socrates suggested that “the un-examined life is not worth living.” That was then, and
it still ain’t. And here is how now:

She: “Recently been thinking a little about the Meaning of Life …”
He: “Honey, why we don’t we google it?”

Boundless affinity for distraction
in vain attempts to handle it all
knee jerks to superficial attraction
one click away or found at the mall

But to lessen Life’s steady pains
must we not all squarely face
how helplessly our vigor drains
caught in Reckoning’s stern gaze?

while our lives us increasingly perplex
by hi-tech growing evermore complex

edited 07/15/23 0710

When young he hid out in the shadows of life
only in shallowest waters he’d wade
Reluctant to engage Life’s beauty & strife
rarely testing whether would make the grade

Pedaled quietly head down
flaunted Life’s ‘how & why’
with a ‘look am busy!’ frown
hoping just to glide by …

His Earthly Welcome now overstayed
turned old, cold, bowed, slowed, frayed & staid
His entrails twisted by ‘regret’s blade’
The ‘grave digger’ fingers his spade

A geezer mildly fearful of Hades
long time now since in his modest heydays

edited 04/03/24 1735