Collected Poetry
VOLUME SEVEN
Copyright © 2012 by Gary Bachlund All international rights reserved
"Like drunks at a bar door, the euro zone's governments and banks are leaning unsteadily on each other for support. The banks know they have to sober up, but governments are urging them to have one more for the road." In "Analysis: Euro zone gropes for way out of state-bank dependency," by Paul Taylor, Reuters Paris, 20 February 2012
One more for the road
To lighten any load
Is logic that's bereft of sense,
Drunk drivers' crashes showed.I see you, and lift your glass,
Which shatters in the hand;
Like as not it says as much
For that one more which is planned.
One more for the road
Is heaping a-la-mode
Obesity's plate with calories
Emptiness swallowed.
"One more for the road,"
Bar room drunks bellowed,
While fumbling for their keys
As out that door they strode.
One more for that road
Means more is ever owed,
And this too surely fails
As economies implode.
Yes, we have no good answers - to be sung to the tune, "Yes! We Have No Bananas," a novelty song by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn (circa 1922)
"We're not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to our long-term problem. What we do know is we don't like yours." Quote of United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in C- SPAN3 coverage of a House Committee Hearing on the federal budget with an official 1.3 trillion dollar deficit, 16 February 2012
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
We've got words and words and words
and rhetoric topped with words,
And yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
There’s a bank man at the helm
Whose tiny name is Tim,
His answers underwhelm,
For when you hear him limn
And you ask him anything,
He never answers no,
He just “Yeses” you to death
And then he takes your dough.
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
We've got charts and graphs and drafts,
Yes, statistics gimmicked well,
So yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
Testifying ain't his best routine;
He calla his chums to say,
“Help! Corzine! Frank! I mean,
I need you right away.”
When they're all together, oh,
There is fun, you bet,
Someone asks for answers,
And then the whole quartet....
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
We've got words and words and words
and rhetoric topped with words,
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.But we don't like yours....
"Chicago is the corruption capital of America, and Illinois is the third most-corrupt state, according to a new academic study on the science of sleaze. 'Unfortunately, when it comes to political corruption, we're numero uno,' Dick Simpson, head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-author of the report, told me Wednesday. 'It's not something we should be proud of. But this is the corruption capital.'" In "Kass: We're No. 1 — in political sleaze, Chicago is corruption capital, report shows" by John Kass, The Chicago Tribune, 16 February 2012
Headlines read,
Corrupt all over;
So says the Tribune
Waking, hung-over.
The science of sleaze
Is decades of change
Which resulted in none;
Now isn't that strange?
Reform, renew,
Refresh, rethink;
From Sandburg to now
It's the same old stink.
Headlines read,
Political sleaze;
So prints the Tribune,
Amid larcenies.
"One of the things that has forced the Greek people to the precipice is the corrupt and inefficient government that everyone agrees must shrink. For decades, politicians have been handing out jobs - with generous benefits - in return for votes, and now the country is broke. 'We all know what needs to be done,' said Apostolos Apostolakis, one of Greece's hardworking young entrepreneurs. 'The problem is, who will take the political risk to do it? We need people who will place the country above their personal interests.'" In "Latest layoffs, cuts drive Greeks to despair," by Elizabeth Palmer, CBS News, 15 February 2012
And there it is
In black-and-white:
That truth which tells it all.
'Twas government
That broke the bank,
And conjured up the squall.
It's debt on debt
That's become the threat,
And now we taste its gall.
Yes, there it is
In black-and-white:
Government which once was small
Fattened, bloated,
Borrowed much,
Must suffocate and fall.Hard to ignore
What's plain to see:
The truth should plain appall.
"The acts that are at once the means and ends of education, knowing, thinking, understanding, judging, are all committed in solitude. It is only in a mind that the work of the mind can be done." In "The Graves of Academe," Richard Mitchell (1981) Akadine Press, 1999.
There is something about being alone,
that all too many people bemoan.
Alone in one's thoughts may be filled to replete,
while alone in one's dreams is merely discrete.
In solitude one creates, invents and learns,
and in it one grasps that for which one yearns.
There is something wondrous about being alone,
when all one's thoughts may be truly one's own.
Greek disability groups expressed anger Monday at a government decision to expand a list of state-recognized disability categories to include pedophiles, exhibitionists and kleptomaniacs. The National Confederation of Disabled People called the action 'incomprehensible,' and said pedophiles are now awarded a higher government disability pay than some people who have received organ transplants. The Labor Ministry said categories added to the expanded list — that also includes pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists — were included for purposes of medical assessment and used as a gauge for allocating financial assistance." In "Furor in Greece over pedophilia as a disability," by Nicholas Paphitis, Associated Press, 9 January 2012
Hey diddle diddle,
To the chaps that fiddle,
And the boys that like to moon,
As the thieves all laugh to see such sport,
And disability is its own lampoon.
Hey twiddle twiddle,
To the folks that piddle,
And the arsonists in the commune,
As the gamblers all laugh to see such sport,
And disability is a Greek's cartoon.
Hey fiddle fiddle,
The government's a riddle,
And the economy's in a swoon,
As the fools rejoice to make such sport,
And disabled is the government buffoon.
Naturally no one steals anything
"Naturally, no one is stealing anything. Like Ermanna Cossio, the youngest pensioner in the world who retired at the age of 29 on 94% of her final salary, the stenographers can say that they didn’t make the rules. Fair enough. But those rules enable Senate staff to quadruple their pay in real terms over their career, thanks to a ridiculous system of automatic increments. Today, the rules generate sky-high earnings at a time when the rest of the county is being asked to make big sacrifices." And "In the meantime, parliamentary staff who head for the door are being showered with gold. " In "Senate Stenographer Paid As Much As King of Spain, Stenographer’s €290,000 salary. Salaries quadruple by end of service. Clerks receive up to €160,000," by Sergio Rizzo and Gian Antonio Stella, Corriere della Sera, 4 gennaio 2012.
Naturally no one steals anything;
They are only showered with gold.
Okay, that's all hyperbole,
But the showering is bold.
Naturally no one steals anything;
They are raking in by rules.
Okay, that's understandable,
Say bureaucrats to loyal fools.
Naturally no one steals anything;
Though they enjoy ridiculous perks.
Okay, that's the way the game is played,
And how such corruption works.
a circle's a square,
as your spoon is a fork,
and more debt surely solves
political pork
yup is sure nope,
and why asks how
while most of the world
is having a cow
a square is a circle,
a fork is a spoon,
and the cow surely never
jumped over the moon,
and debt hasn't solved
one crisis of debt,
as stupid plays smartin its solo duet
"Project Shield was supposed to make citizens safer. But in the end, the $45-million Homeland Security program more resembled a disaster, wasting taxpayers’ dollars and failing to make a single citizen more secure. The failed Cook County initiative was replete with equipment that failed to work, missing records and untrained first responders according to a report by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The report, to be released Monday but obtained by The Sun-Times and NBC5 News, found 'millions of tax dollars may have been wasted.'" In "Feds find failures in Cook Co. homeland security project," by Carol Marin and Don Moseley, Chicago Sun-Times, 8 January 2012
Let us feign surprise again;
More waste is found. Hooray! Amen!
That government would waste is true;
Who does not think this? Is it you?
Government defines most waste,
And spends and spends and spends in haste.
All the prattle, the rhetorical bull
Is meant to make government coffers full,
That they be emptied double quick,
To show them acting politic.
Come to hear there's waste? Ah then
Let's all feign surprise again.
I need no boots for me to lick,
and need no cures that make me sick.
I need no guru to guide my path,
and need no banker to take a bath.
I need no counsel to rob me blind,
and need no posture pre-assigned.
I need no one who rules over me,
and need no bar to my liberty.
The boots which demand that I hobnail lick,
and cures which serve to make me sick,
The gurus demands' to guide my way?
Such as these I disobey.
I need no counsel to stay my course,
no more than I need a charley-horse.
I need no rulers to measure me,
But need them all to leave me be.
"People are less dissatisfied by what they lack than by what others have. And when government engages in redistribution in order to maximize the happiness of citizens who become more envious as they become more comfortable, government becomes increasingly frenzied and futile." In "Government: The redistributionist behemoth," by George Will, The Washington Post, 7 January 2012
You got it; I want it.
I'll get from you.
You got it; I'm envious
Quite through and through.
You got it; I'll have it.
I'll wrench it from you.
Coercion is justice,
And debt revenue.
You got it; I'll take it
By law as by force.
You dare not resist
Or you're beaten, of course.
You got it; I'll have it.
At least you will not.
If all is a loss,
Well, that's what you've wrought.
You've had it; resentment
Filled me with ills.
And for this my actions
Are justified kills.
Red is a game, much like Green
"Chinese officials love their cars — big, fancy, expensive cars. A chocolate-colored Bentley worth $560,000 is cruising the streets of Beijing with license plates indicating it is registered to Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party headquarters. The armed police, who handle riots and crowd control, have the same model of Bentley in blue." In "China Communist Party bureaucrats like their cars high end," by Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, 8 January 2012
Some Reds, it seems, are millionaires;
Some Greens do very fine.
Bentleys in a lovely blue
Among the poor can shine.Red is a game, much like Green.
It is the blind which have not seen.
Some Reds, it seems, have needs
Quite like unto some Greens,
While the poorest classes serve,
Slaving for philistines.Red's been a game, much like Green.
Its openness is byzantine.
Chinese Red games, much like Jolly Green,
Where social justice lies
Like words which lie on lips
As the elite aggrandize.Red is a game, much like Green.
It rewards the few with a fine limousine.
Some Reds, we learn, are billionaires;
Some Greens pursue the same.
And why, one asks politely,
Play Red and Green this game?Red is that game, much like Green.
It waddles fat, among great hunger mean.
Bentley has an answer,
In chocolate as in blue.
Reds and Greens will often
Others clearly screw.Red was a game, much like Green.
Its outcomes were truly all foreseen.
LoaGai contain the riff-raff
Who never will ride fine.
Red gulags hold the poorest,
So the wealthy bright may shine.Red is a game, much like Green,
Such games only freedoms contravene.
Communism has its panda face
Which bears a grin at times.
Such smiling happy leaders
May beam through all their crimes.
Socialism shows its caring side
While piling debt on debt,
But shifting sands and angry hands
Are rising as a threat.
The threat? It is to Bentleys
Of blue or chocolate hue,
For such things tyrannies
Must have by robbing -- you.Red is a game, much like Green.
It is the blind which have not seen.
"He also cited a media report that one man claimed he'd signed recall petitions 80 times, and submitted a petition from last summer's attempt to recall Sen. Jim Holperin (D-Conover), in which the accountability board allowed a 'Bugs Bunny' signature to be counted. Kennedy said the signature was counted because Holperin didn't follow the proper procedures for challenging it." In "Judge rules for Walker campaign in case against state election officials," by Tom Tolan of the Journal Sentinel, 5 January, 2012.
Bugs Bunny votes?
Well, some would have it so.
It's a matter of procedures,
They'd like to have you know.
Donald Duck's ballot?
Someone quacked is there,
To say that it's procedural
And so a fake is fair.
Hitler's signature?
But defend it, so some did.
It seems such loony tunes
One must now not forbid.
Bugs Bunny votes?
Who argues for this view?
Politics now is cartoon land
Where sanity's askew.
"There are eleven things which are impure: urine, excrement, sperm, bones, blood, dogs, pigs, non-Muslim men and women, wine, beer and the sweat of the excrement-eating camel. The urine and feces of man and any animal whose bloods spirts when a vein or artery of its body is opened are impure. But flyspecks or the droppings of mosquitoes or others small insects whose blood does not gush are pure." In "The Little Green Book, Selected Fatwahs and Sayings of the Ayatollah Mosavi Khomeini," translated into English by Harold Salemson, Bantam Books, 1985
Purely pure purity, one reads in strange evidence,
Makes for purely purity in insects' droppings; thence
When those who'd puree purely such insect excrements,
I'd decline to dine on insect dung -- their spices and their scents.
But then again such sayings say I am unclean, impure,
So I'd not be invited anyway by such a bearded epicure.
But then he's rotten in the way of spoiled fleshly things,
And left us his droppings in a book about such seasonings.
"Where would you rather live: Congo, Algeria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Myanmar; or HK, Singapore, NZ, Switzerland, UK, US, Australia, Canada, Ireland or Luxembourg? If you favour the second set of countries - because you imagine, rightly, that they enjoy a much higher level of income and personal freedom - you might also be interested to know that they all benefit from a high level of what this book's contributors call 'economic freedom'; that is, the rule of law, private ownership, personal choice, voluntary exchange and free entry into markets. The first lot, by contrast, are at the bottom of the 'economic freedom' index." In "Making poor nations rich," a book review of "A History of Economic Thought: The LSE Lectures, Princeton University Press, 2000," by Elisa Nay, published by Nth Position.
Freedom is freedom is freedom,
But, what is that you say?
In order that others might have theirs,
You need erode mine away?
Okay, you really mean only
Degree by step by cause,
But still it's freedom eroded,
And that should give us pause.
Freedom is freedom is freedom,
But the brightest and the best
Say and vow and argue
That freedom should be finessed
Into less and less of freedom
As chains grow link by link.
Some proclaim this progress,
Pushing freedom to the brink
Of that which is no longer free
And best known as plain slavery.
He's the bride at every wedding,
So well groomed is this best man;
He plays his roles bright blithely
As if it were not a plan.
He acts the corpse at every wake,
As he lies and lies in state;
He's the star of every story,
Himself to accentuate.
He's the hero, he's the savior,
Above you many he's the one.
He's the one that he's waited for,
And shines as moon and sun.
He's archenemy of evil
And advocate of your good;
For all your snares and errors
He must rule your neighborhood.
He's the top dog of his pack,
And the headline when you wake.
He's Dear Leader in all tongues
And he serves for his own sake.
He's the judge at every trial,
Retribution for all wrongs.
He's a jury and executioner,
Who loves adoring throngs.
He's right: it must be you
Who is in the wrong this day,
And by his right, your wrong
Must be made to pay.
To pay for all the weddings,
The trials and the plays,
The mourning and adorning,
Requires payments many ways.