Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Robert Verdon, #284, welcome to the future

the bridges are budding
a skirl of horns greets us
clockwork mice
arriving by tardis
neat papers foretell
jobless futures
academics unravel
weeks go by
without a newspaper
we have the bourgeoisies
of every minority
we have the believers
in Abstract Ideas
cultural lakes
flush themselves silly in our presence
rambling roses engulf each chimney romantically
the seam of time and space begins to rip
city cliffs vomit lemmings in a rain of abacus beads
the zenith is the hue of dubbin
the dustbin of history is always full
there are no jobs
everyone must have a job
sestinas ring out complicatedly
they comprise the national anthem
everyone must learn it off by heart
it is the same in every country
robots sing it everywhere
Bach made happy
special bodies of armoured machines enforce order
wrinkled men rule as they did 50 years ago
the Queen is still on the throne, so they say
we watch re-runs of M*A*S*H and Family Feud
parliament is compulsory
poetry is competitive
paintings are solar-powered
music is ubiquitous
suicide is painless
life is unfair
death is a holiday
war is our lifeblood:

welcome to the future

2 comments:

  1. fantastic Robbie! I was just watching a MASH rerun last night. Suicide is painless, great lyric from that original MASH movie. It is chilling, that ubiquity of the military. Where are the satirists of today satirising this madness?

    ReplyDelete
  2. :)

    I guess there needs to be a stronger idea of what a peaceful civilisation might be like (and the chance of building it) before the glamour of war can be dispelled, even by satire. The MASH tv show — never did see the movie — is still riding on the optimism of the 60s and 70s. Doesn't seem to be much of that around today, unless I'm just jaded!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.