eric sundin

Watching from box suite
humanity’s last game:
In utter defeat
strangely absent all shame

Watch how during the Sixth Mass Extinction
we wreak disaster without distinction!

Whether granted one more decade
or just one more faint heartbeat
as long as own demise is stayed
we’ll sit on cushy box seat

Til fade our horrid shrieking jeers
drowned in dying oceans of tears

edited 09/05/24 0830

Not just merely a vidiot
(that bleary eyed screen stoic)
but across the board idiot
in antics non-heroic

Of ‘click here’ stuff lascivious
the warrior of armchair
Otherwise seems oblivious
not known to be self-aware

And the less he understands
the likelier he grandstands

+)
vidiot = a habitual, undiscriminating watcher of videos or gawker on any screen

edited 10/16/23 1500

Drawn owlish train whistles
in plaintive shrillness
each piercingly chisels
through nightly stillness

Through windows in blurry caprice
darkly flash by power poles
Swaying coach cradling us in peace
lounging bodies, stirred up souls

Thunders through crossings’ clangs
of collapsing crescendo
fading as also-rangs
until mere innuendo

Through mountains, along banks
rolls the Coast Starlight
Each wheel set timely clanks
in silent moonlight

+)
-also-rang = rang: past tense of ring; from ‘also-ran’
-Coast Starlight = the Amtrak train between Seattle and Los Angeles

editing 10/14/23 0810

Our rickety routine
everyday habits
where daily we careen
hop like do rabbits

We’re staggering muddily mired
by cruelest culture peaved
Even when eagerly aspired
is escape ever achieved

from our consumerism’s shtick masquerade
by joining another dance unafraid?

+)
-bemire = to cause (an object or person) to sink in mire

edited 06/13/26 0730

“Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.”
-Thucydides (c.460 B.C.– c.400 B.C.)

If restraint implies ‘voluntary’ restraint would we these days recognize something so over the top quaint?

Yes, in Antiquity
but regarded now
as mere obliquity
Here is why & how:

Today’s absence of restraint
sustains mindless shopping
above all for more war paint
unjust wars not stopping

Fans fiery fire
absent qualms
by our Empire
dropping bombs

While voices of restraint
raised rarely, echo faint

+)
-obliquity = deviation from moral rectitude or sound thinking
-restraint = voluntary restraint in action, behavior, expressing feelings etc

edited 01/30/24 0750

They’re miles from mettlesome
as cowards fully
If merely nettlesome
better than bully

Their self-justification airtight
they benight us as if their birthright

+)
-benight = envelop with social, intellectual, or moral darkness
-mettlesome = having a proud and unbroken spirit; willing to face danger
-nettlesome = causing irritation, vexation, or distress

edited 08/29/2026 1035

Är ej tveklöshet
barnsligt högmod
mens tvehågsenhet
vuxet jämnmod?

Men visst lockande att ringakta
eftertanke, logik å fakta?

edited 05/02/22 1045

Få känna sej vemodig
bete sej saktmodigt
leva livet tålmodig
syns kanske urmodigt?

Passar det ej längre
när tiden känns knapp?
Livet syns allt trängre
bäst ladda ny app!

Numer stursk å högmodig
likgiltig, missmodig
Kanske innerst svårmodig
fast utåt frimodig?

Ej längre någon dans på logen
snarare går det helt åt skogen

edited 10/13/2026 1230

At night as become the rite
we blessedly tether
Then before the dawn’s scant light
we wake up together

We shall find comes daybreak
that the harsh world is still there
but jointly to partake
shall be easier to bear

We’re feeling supported thus bolder
when completed by each other
Watching over the other’s shoulder
glad to be here, nowhere rather

While one of us one day
may shiver alone
we shall suffer what may
But not bitter cold:

for by The Past’s glowing embers
warmed, as he or she remembers

edited 12/09/21 1000

When munching on bread:

Flowing field windswept
the rustling grain
soggily it wept
in bursting rain

When sipping coffee:

In heat shimmering
ripe the red beans
glowing glimmering
on hillside greens

When walking on a wood floor:

Stately tall the trees
branches sweeping the sky
swaying in brisk breeze
reaching where eagles fly

While when looking in the mirror:

My old face has since long been cast
recalls not the youth of its past

edited 06/29/24 1110