eric sundin

Decision making worth not one iota
wobbling, am yet again straddling the fence
Long since depleted my green house gas quota
The same old dead end dance: Ambivalence

Why another near speed of sound detour
thirty thousand feet above the ground?
Tell me, what’s conceivably the allure?
In Life where am I really bound?

Am no longer a sightseer
as found the ‘there’ over there
would no more enrich or endear
than does the ‘here’ back home here

So there, er, here!

edited 01/04/23 1720

Relentlessly pounds the traffic
hurled metal in evening dark
Dashing (wheels spinning) chrome graphic
out from sparsely lit car park

Exhaust fumes stirring foul
gasoline fumes in nostrils
Predaceous drivers prowl
high on fuels from fossils

Chilly darkness stark
lights & dials glower
Cacophonous bark
by loose reined horsepower

Clawing tires hunt & screech for traction
in show off acceleration
what passes for thrill seeking action
in oil slicked exhilaration

Stereo blares music thoracic
among fast food charcuteries
Pretense by chariots Jurassic
and no Rides of The Valkyries

+)
-charcuterie = here: burger joint
-Jurassic = here: hopelessly outdated as far as a sustainable planet
-Ride of the Valkyries = the beginning of act 3 of Die Walküre opera by Richard Wagner
-thoracic = here: chest thumping; pertaining to the thorax or chest

edited 10/31/23 1540

Remote entry lights flash, honking horn
just to get into one’s own car?!
Am I the only one left forlorn?
Ain’t this too much, taken too far?

Anywhere left to go to be spared
all that talking, beeping, tinging?
Tell me: Must all ‘happy’ noise be shared
must our ears be buzzing, ringing?

What happened to just plain driving
spared electronic conniving?

edited 10/29/23 0755

“Strip away the trivial and the banal, the empty chatter and foolish obsessions that fill our days” – Chris Hedges

Indulging each bagatelle
welcoming every distraction?
In our games of show-and-tell
we lack reality traction

Why not live to be able to say
when catches us the Grim Reaper:
‘At least I agonized in the fray
make sure to tell the Gate Keeper!’

Rather in ungainly Reality struggle
than vainly in Fantasy trying to snuggle

edited 07/26/24 1045

In the early 1920’s through mid 40’s era:

Arm straight at 45 degrees, empty palm down, with jaw jutted upward aligned with arm. Transfixed on Il Duce or Der Fuhrer. Practiced by tens of millions, saluting those fascist unsavory squirts in their black or brown shirts, who stirred up the desperate masses.

In our current era:

Around 90 degrees between upper and lower arm, palm up,
hand slightly rotated inward, head slightly turned with jaw tilted downward.
Transfixed on The Screen. Practiced by billions of distracted, desperate masses some of whom may spend a significant portion of their income on their smarter-than-them phones, which further enrich huge corporations:

“Being stuck on Fantasy’s Screen
like Narcissus focused on his bod
blind to how they fervidly preen
twittering away in ‘nose glued’ plod

So come on, try a detached look:
boorish, self centered banality
living life liking on Facebook
substituting for Reality

In both eras: poses thought beyond cool
Unless one were a ‘nonconformist fool’”

+)
-Il Duce = Benito Mussolini, ruler of Fascist Italy 1922-43
-Der Fuhrer = Adolf Hitler, ruler of Fascist Germany 1934-45

edited 01/23/25 1700

Lifted beyond mind & heart distraught
Unshackled from self insignificant
Saved from lonely fear & scattered thought
Freed from mortal body recalcitrant

Passion’s waves crash on to eternity’s shore
from turmoil, anger & of guilt relieved
Briefly we rest in immortality’s core
not absolved, momentarily reprieved

While only the most clueless among nerds
dare describe Beethoven’s music with words …

edited 06/24/22 0750

Freed to throw shoes

“First lady Laura Bush said she was offended by the recent ‘assault’ on her husband, who had two shoes thrown at him during a recent visit to Iraq. At the same time, however, she said the assault shows that Iraqis feel a lot freer than they did before. She further noted that President Bush is a ‘natural athlete’ as demonstrated by his ability to dodge the shoes.”

This Fox News 12/28/08 story inspired the following verse:

The ‘justifications’ for war cruel & criminal
range from outright lies to delusional, subliminal.

Here’s thus how bringing democracy goes:
Iraqis now free (sort of) to throw shoes!

Did not the shoes miss the President by luck?
No, a ‘natural athlete’ knows how to duck:

From shoes as from harsh reality
that inflicts death and brutality.

Millions by now displaced, dead or maimed
cowering from bullets & bombs rained.

So Mrs Bush, we’re they ‘natural athletes’ with pluck
surely the Iraqis could just have managed to duck?!

+)
-Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist, threw the shoes

edited 06/25/19 0750

Are words only something we say
(while of use when pray or prey)
often a chatter game, a play
of silly flatter or flay?

Ain’t sweating meaning for fools
and hassle use dictionary?
Words need not be meaning’s mules
No! to word constabulary!

But words still prove useful tools
when needing to allay
or leading gullible fools
on to a path, astray

Although phrases may stray
do gather up a bouquet
when attempting to sway
someone to love or to pay!

+)
-meaning’s mule = (by license) carry meaning

edited 11/30/23 1715

In hesitant dawn wet & bleak
our rising Entrepreneur
behind the wheel of Beamer sleek
slithering in throaty stir.

Later backing out without a glitch
Exotic Mom of redhead hue
ferrying Brothers Igorovich
in syolid wagon Slugbaru.

Next Grandma at the wheel.
Blurred enviro-correct sheen
flashes by, her tires squeal
in Prius dinged, faded green.

Next Grandpa balancing unsteady
pumping on lowly bike pedals.
Mind filled with quixotic plans heady
daydreaming of gleaming medals.

“At last, alone!” meows Kisa, snuggled ball,
“I’m not moving my butt or my paws at all!”

+)
Kisa = name of a cat who understand Russian but pretends she does not

edited 09/14/20 1800

Trashing the planet while we can
ain’t hardly plunder or theft!
With so little remaining, man
not very much left to heft!

No way, not just my opinion
it ain’t me, just take a look:
The Bible commands ‘dominion’
long since read such good a book

Prefer to float on own cloud nine
spouting TV show humor
insisting on rights which are mine
as consummate consumer!

+)
dominion = Psalms 8:6-8

edited 11/02/23 0750