Rotten Borough – dVerse

I want to connect with you, deep down inside

but I’m deeply disturbed by your tissue of lies,

in front of others, you’re polished and sleek –

you manage to obscure just what hides beneath.

You’ve done it before, the veneer has been fine

and your gift of the gab has played tricks with my mind.

You’ve courted, persuaded, played to my tune,

dazzled and sparkled, my energy’s consumed.

Resistance is futile, you believe in your power

whilst my boat of lost hope is bound to founder

on rocks of persuasion; as politicians stand

I can’t help but wondering – are we all damned?

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This week, on dVerse Meeting the Bar, Karin has asked us to write in slant, or near rhyme, which I enjoy both reading, and writing. I’m posting early and linking up to Karin’s post later, as I will be hot-footing it to the polling station to vote in the European elections. As you can see from my poem, I do wonder at the sanity of it all, but better to vote than not at all, that’s not in question. My personal politics, other than ones I have shared before on the future of our planet are not for here, but I imagine you have a fair idea of the sorts of things I really can’t abide.

By the way, the title of my piece, ‘Rotten Borough’, is the name that was used for parliamentary boroughs or constituencies in the UK which had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue influence in the House of Commons until the Reform Act of 1832, which disenfranchised them. For example, Old Sarum in Wiltshire had 3 house, 7 voters and 2 Members of Parliament! See Wikipedia for more examples!

Please pop over to dVerse to see how others have risen to the slant rhyme challenge – I will be hooking up and linking up later!

 

 

Reclaimed – VisDare 60

‘I have saved them – they are not lost, thank goodness, oh thank goodness!’

Judah’s thoughts raced and he released a shuddering sigh, expelling the pent-up adrenalin of the past hours. All he had left in the world, and he had snatched it from destruction with moments to spare. Someone – or something – was smiling down on him.

“Hey, hands off the truck, this haul is mine, mate!”

Judah’s hot temper flashed momentarily, but he knew when he was beaten – he had no energy left for a fight with Solly, the local prize-fighter. The time for acting first, thinking later, was gone. Times had changed.

As the truck coughed into life and roared away, he turned to his small daughters standing expectantly behind him – his only reason for living, now and always.

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After a long absence, I decided to return to Angela’s VisDare prompt, where the challenge is to respond, in 150 words or less, to the photo she puts up on her blog each week. Something about this photo really pulled me in, so the story wrote itself – result! I had in mind refugees escaping conflict – I have used Jewish/Yiddish names, because that is the tie in history I know most about, but sadly, the situation can be easily transferred to any conflict where civilians are the victims…

I hope you enjoy it, please do take part. I’ll be linking up now and commenting on other contributions later!

Fool’s Gold

I wonder if in a future to come
We’ll ponder on the verb ‘to frack’
If our horizons will make us all glum
At the backbone that we lack

For want of a nail, the shoe falls off
For want of a mind, we act as one
We crumble, shake, allow others to scoff
And squander our Earth in pursuit of fun

My heart is hopeful, half-full is my glass
As protestors take a brave, strong stand
But I’m afraid we’ll fall on our collective ass
Swap morals for oil and sell off all our land!

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This week on dVerse, our Swedish bar-tender Bjorn wants us to write dagsvers, or daily verse, a journalistic form of poetry that (sadly) only seems to appear in Nordic newspapers. These poetic comments on current events, maybe with a touch of fun, are a wonderful idea! I’m afraid I’m not up to adding a cartoon style drawing to set off my sardonic little poem, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. And yes, I confess it is on the dark side of funny, but hey, you should know how I roll by now!

Please do go and visit the other wonderful poets who take part in the dVerse community and do, do, do comment! We all love a comment!