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Post a line of poetry that is appropriate for our current Commander-in-Chief (Original Post) red dog 1 May 2018 OP
e. e. cummings gratuitous May 2018 #1
Lewis Carrol... The Jabberwocky. revmclaren May 2018 #2
This message was self-deleted by its author Snotcicles May 2018 #68
"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves" A HERETIC I AM May 2018 #86
Just as an aside.... LisaM May 2018 #135
Round the decay sir pball May 2018 #3
Ozymandias, part 1. guillaumeb May 2018 #34
Absolutely. There's a whole beautiful poem already written about this bastard. Dave Starsky May 2018 #98
From Percy SoCalDem May 2018 #4
This message was self-deleted by its author red dog 1 May 2018 #17
Perfect malaise May 2018 #18
That's the one I thought of catrose May 2018 #79
There are words to describe you but I find this most applicable. cornball 24 May 2018 #5
Some men make passes trof May 2018 #6
+ 10 salin May 2018 #8
Recommended. guillaumeb May 2018 #35
+1. Music for the soul right there dalton99a May 2018 #49
Dear Mr. Trump, Fuck Off USALiberal May 2018 #7
Christopher Smart: Jubilate Agno ProudLib72 May 2018 #9
Fucking America is essential Because it feels so damn good Honesty, less so Kaleva May 2018 #10
Alternatively, Eliot: The Hollow Men ProudLib72 May 2018 #11
+++11111 zentrum May 2018 #173
There was an old man in D.C. / Whose dementia was frightening to see... Hekate May 2018 #12
And the rest? guillaumeb May 2018 #36
Was actually hoping someone else would oblige. My first thought was actually from TS Eliot... Hekate May 2018 #40
I see outrage, loud voices, and a wave coming. guillaumeb May 2018 #42
Maybe I can contribute... 3catwoman3 May 2018 #151
Line 5: That dreadful old man from DC Hekate May 2018 #156
I tried to come up with something... 3catwoman3 May 2018 #160
For most it was clear BlancheSplanchnik May 2018 #178
All of you are choosing most excellent verses. Hekate May 2018 #13
''Idiot wind, Blowing every time you move your mouth ... '' Donkees May 2018 #14
I've got nothin', but I found a great site where people tweeted Vinca May 2018 #15
Thanks for that link red dog 1 May 2018 #22
From Paradise Lost NotASurfer May 2018 #16
Pretty much the entirety of King Lear Nevernose May 2018 #19
Hark Hark the dogs do bark tavernier May 2018 #20
Excellent. zentrum May 2018 #174
There once was a man from Trump Tower boston bean May 2018 #21
There once was a pervert from Queens red dog 1 May 2018 #24
I wrote a limerick about him The Blue Flower May 2018 #23
I like it! red dog 1 May 2018 #27
I wrote a limerick about him back in November, 2016 - right after he stole the presidency red dog 1 May 2018 #29
"What a piece of work is man!"... SidDithers May 2018 #25
From Esther Leclerc ... ananda May 2018 #26
"I got old & shit in my pants" Fozzledick May 2018 #28
The Cremation of our Liberty Botany May 2018 #30
Creation of Sam McGeejust great kiri May 2018 #73
+ 1000 red dog 1 May 2018 #95
Feel Free to spread it all you want Botany May 2018 #96
I will be sure to credit Robert Service red dog 1 May 2018 #103
Now Donald Trump and his big fat rump, was born in the borough of Queens red dog 1 May 2018 #131
". . .and miles to go before [this asshole is gone and] I [can] sleep." n/t Stargleamer May 2018 #31
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things: struggle4progress May 2018 #32
I like your signature line red dog 1 May 2018 #41
Vote for Gracie! struggle4progress May 2018 #47
Gracie Allen said about being born.. Permanut May 2018 #65
Ogden Nash DeminPennswoods May 2018 #33
"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in" oberliner May 2018 #37
Apropos because it was yet another of his many projections. flibbitygiblets May 2018 #83
Exactly oberliner May 2018 #87
Things fall apart, the center cannot hold. The Velveteen Ocelot May 2018 #38
Reminds me of Shitler's hair red dog 1 May 2018 #43
The best lack all conviction while the worst/ are full of passionate intensity. tclambert May 2018 #112
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Stonepounder May 2018 #167
Such literate people Hekate May 2018 #39
The best lack all conviction and the worst are full of meadowlander May 2018 #44
Yes, this one from W.B. Yeats yonder May 2018 #54
This Leighbythesea May 2018 #64
Yes, that's the one I always think of. The Velveteen Ocelot May 2018 #113
Yep, the question of the last two lines has been answered... malthaussen May 2018 #123
Yes! Thank you. I've been trying to remember who wrote this! n/t pnwmom May 2018 #138
"There is no joy in Dumbfuckistan, Mighty Donnie has struck out". oasis May 2018 #45
hhgttg LSFL May 2018 #46
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz? oberliner May 2018 #48
indeed! LSFL May 2018 #50
Here's the whole poem oberliner May 2018 #51
"Like jowling meated liverslime" yonder May 2018 #57
nice! tyvm! LSFL May 2018 #61
guaranteed to make one wish for the sweet death of near vacuum of outer space. -n/t lapfog_1 May 2018 #152
Glad there are so many Hitchhiker's Guide fans around here! oberliner May 2018 #166
"Epitaph on a Tyrant," by W. H. Auden, 1939 VOX May 2018 #52
The poets know. Hekate May 2018 #157
With apologies to W. Shakespeare Glorfindel May 2018 #53
"You sad, pathetic man, see where you've brought us to, Aristus May 2018 #55
Perfect. In_The_Wind May 2018 #58
Hi, I-T-W! Aristus May 2018 #60
Right back atcha, Aristus In_The_Wind May 2018 #62
When ill seed has been sown, so an ill crop will spring from it. (Njal's Saga, c.114) airmid May 2018 #56
"Life...is a tale told by an idiot, lunatica May 2018 #59
But I think the most likely reason of all mainstreetonce May 2018 #63
limerick NellieStarbuck May 2018 #66
Welcome to DU! red dog 1 May 2018 #91
Roses are red, violets are blue; and fuck you. Garrett78 May 2018 #67
This message was self-deleted by its author Plucketeer May 2018 #69
This message was self-deleted by its author Plucketeer May 2018 #71
Sir Walter Scott stevenleser May 2018 #70
Excellent! red dog 1 May 2018 #89
Thou shall not lie LakeArenal May 2018 #72
Does it say anything about coveting your own daughter? tclambert May 2018 #115
Ugh! Where has all the smiting gone? LakeArenal May 2018 #117
"Roses are red.. LudwigPastorius May 2018 #74
Mind if I complete that? red dog 1 May 2018 #92
Do music lyrics count? LiberalLovinLug May 2018 #75
the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe JustAnotherGen May 2018 #76
And there in the woods ploppy May 2018 #77
"The centre will not hold!" nt Atticus May 2018 #78
Our first president chopped down a cherry tree Soxfan58 May 2018 #80
How do I screw thee? lpbk2713 May 2018 #81
When you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs....then you will be c-rational May 2018 #82
Shakespeare: "Thou sodden-witted lord! Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows." malchickiwick May 2018 #84
+ 1000 red dog 1 May 2018 #93
Auden, maybe? Straw Man May 2018 #85
Here's a song instead: If I had the wings of an eagle. . . DinahMoeHum May 2018 #88
LOL red dog 1 May 2018 #99
Here Are a Couple Leith May 2018 #90
Oh, what a tangled head of weave, this man we elected to deceive. lame54 May 2018 #94
Here I sit broken hearted geardaddy May 2018 #97
His complexion is perfect gallows... Demsrule86 May 2018 #100
There once was a lad would could pucker........... Dyedinthewoolliberal May 2018 #101
Humpty Dumpty Freethinker65 May 2018 #102
Oh Celia Celia Celia GaryCnf May 2018 #104
I sing of olaf glad and big TallMike May 2018 #105
An immediate reaction to our current commander-in-chief, in hopes it will all be over soon kskiska May 2018 #106
The Mask of Evil marlakay May 2018 #107
Can I post a song lyric instead? muriel_volestrangler May 2018 #108
Ozymandias By Percy Bysshe Shelley vlyons May 2018 #109
Another good one. The Velveteen Ocelot May 2018 #116
"I am determined to be a villain..." First Speaker May 2018 #110
mene mene tekel vlyons May 2018 #111
Kahlil Gibran green917 May 2018 #114
Red BlueTexasMan May 2018 #118
Richard III SleeplessinSoCal May 2018 #119
oh ok rtracey May 2018 #120
There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile. mia May 2018 #121
Robert Burns, "A parcel of rogues" Fortinbras Armstrong May 2018 #122
Everything Shakespeare wrote was pure poetry. Nitram May 2018 #124
How about a whole poem? Auden's "Epitaph on a Tyrant" QC May 2018 #125
This one will be appropriate when Trump dies (I also want to use it at Cheney's death) Fortinbras Armstrong May 2018 #126
"Have you seen the bigger piggies In their starched white shirts..." FailureToCommunicate May 2018 #127
something wicked this way comes. Kurt V. May 2018 #128
Good one! red dog 1 May 2018 #133
"O what a tangled web we tweet, when we lie in every tweet, each and every day of the week!" usaf-vet May 2018 #129
Ahem... gay texan May 2018 #130
----- Onyrleft May 2018 #132
Joseph Heller, "Catch-22" Lady_Chat May 2018 #134
Auden BobTheSubgenius May 2018 #136
The Peace of Wild Things - Wendell Berry Nay May 2018 #137
Speaking of hope for better times: Jefferson on the "Reign of Witches" Lady_Chat May 2018 #140
I think this was after the passage of the Alien and Sedition Act... Hekate May 2018 #159
This Hekate May 2018 #158
Great thread! I love DUers! lunatica May 2018 #139
Shakespeare would have lambasted Trump Generic Other May 2018 #141
I'd rather not dignify him... malthaussen May 2018 #142
Trump and Putin sitting in a tree Uncle Joe May 2018 #143
You're welcome red dog 1 May 2018 #176
"Don't let it bring you down; it's only castles burning." Chemisse May 2018 #144
DUMP IS A TRAITOROUS DOUCHE BAG. AZ8theist May 2018 #145
Nevermore sorcrow May 2018 #146
out out damn spot samnsara May 2018 #147
This message was self-deleted by its author Texin May 2018 #148
"To live outside the law, you must be honest." Bob Dylan ancianita May 2018 #149
My Contribution ... kooth May 2018 #150
The Stalin Epigram by Osip Mandelstam janterry May 2018 #153
Here I sit Broken Hearted.... jpak May 2018 #154
Verse 3 from Robert Burns "A Man's A Man" DownFromTheMountain May 2018 #155
Fuck You Rump. That is all. Kirk Lover May 2018 #161
Hey hi - why don't you lie? ooky May 2018 #162
A collaboration from Hekate and 3cat - 3catwoman3 May 2018 #163
I'm not a poetry person, but I know show tunes MurrayDelph May 2018 #164
My own, a haiku icymist May 2018 #165
O hideous little bat, the size of snot Marthe48 May 2018 #168
Sir Walter Scott demigoddess May 2018 #169
Me tazkcmo May 2018 #170
The Walrus and the Carpenter - Lewis Carroll Bozvotros May 2018 #171
The Second Coming - Yeats AnnieBW May 2018 #172
From Willie The Shake The Wizard May 2018 #175
The Bard has much to say about the likes of Trump Hekate May 2018 #179
From "The Race" by Owen Pallenberg red dog 1 May 2018 #177
"We are the greatest city, the greatest nation: nothing like us ever was." alfredo May 2018 #180
Roses are red, violets are blue, Trump is orange and soon impeached too! NCLefty Sep 2019 #181
Yes we do! red dog 1 Sep 2019 #182

gratuitous

(82,849 posts)
1. e. e. cummings
Sun May 20, 2018, 03:43 PM
May 2018

Olaf(upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat
"there is some shit I will not eat"

revmclaren

(2,488 posts)
2. Lewis Carrol... The Jabberwocky.
Sun May 20, 2018, 03:58 PM
May 2018

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

Only! 2018 - 2020.

Response to revmclaren (Reply #2)

A HERETIC I AM

(24,320 posts)
86. "Twas brillig, and the slithy toves"
Mon May 21, 2018, 03:45 PM
May 2018

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Thought the exact same thing!

GMTA!

Dave Starsky

(5,914 posts)
98. Absolutely. There's a whole beautiful poem already written about this bastard.
Mon May 21, 2018, 05:31 PM
May 2018

This, too, shall pass.

SoCalDem

(103,856 posts)
4. From Percy
Sun May 20, 2018, 04:18 PM
May 2018

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—

“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . .

Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains.

Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Response to SoCalDem (Reply #4)

cornball 24

(1,472 posts)
5. There are words to describe you but I find this most applicable.
Sun May 20, 2018, 04:50 PM
May 2018

You are the ultimate form of despicable!

Cornball, Poetass

trof

(54,255 posts)
6. Some men make passes
Sun May 20, 2018, 05:00 PM
May 2018

At porn stars in glasses
?quality=85&strip=all&w=370&h=204&crop=1
If they mess with these lasses
They'll pay through their asses.
-trof

ProudLib72

(17,984 posts)
9. Christopher Smart: Jubilate Agno
Sun May 20, 2018, 05:20 PM
May 2018
Let Ross, house of Ross rejoice with the Great Flabber Dabber Flat Clapping Fish with hands. Vide Anson's Voyage and Psalm 98th ix.

ProudLib72

(17,984 posts)
11. Alternatively, Eliot: The Hollow Men
Sun May 20, 2018, 05:25 PM
May 2018
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Hekate

(90,189 posts)
12. There was an old man in D.C. / Whose dementia was frightening to see...
Sun May 20, 2018, 05:25 PM
May 2018

That came to me immediately -- will finish it later.

Hekate

(90,189 posts)
40. Was actually hoping someone else would oblige. My first thought was actually from TS Eliot...
Sun May 20, 2018, 07:20 PM
May 2018

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper

red dog 1

(27,647 posts)
22. Thanks for that link
Sun May 20, 2018, 06:39 PM
May 2018

I love this one from October, 2016

"Call me the Grinch. Just look what I've got!
I never pay taxes. And my daughter is hot!"

NotASurfer

(2,138 posts)
16. From Paradise Lost
Sun May 20, 2018, 05:52 PM
May 2018

Farewell happy fields,
Where joy forever dwells: Hail, horrors, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest hell

Nevernose

(13,081 posts)
19. Pretty much the entirety of King Lear
Sun May 20, 2018, 06:14 PM
May 2018

If one applies some poetic license to the definition of poetry.

The plot isn’t the same as our reality, and Lear is more sympathetic, but there are dozens of lines from it that remind me of this administration.

Every time Cheeto begins with his self-pitying, whiney bullshit (which is far too frequent), I hear him saying
“I am a man, more sinned against than sinning.”

Threats against North Korea from an insane king?
“I will do such things,
What they are, yet I know not; but they shall be
The terrors of the earth.”

“Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides:
Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.”

“This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whore-master man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!”




tavernier

(12,322 posts)
20. Hark Hark the dogs do bark
Sun May 20, 2018, 06:18 PM
May 2018

The beggars have come to town
Some are in rags and some are in tags
And some are in velvet gowns.

boston bean

(36,186 posts)
21. There once was a man from Trump Tower
Sun May 20, 2018, 06:20 PM
May 2018

He was an ugly yet delicate flower.

He grabbed any women near.
And He doesn’t drink beer.

But he’s a crook like a common pick pocket.

red dog 1

(27,647 posts)
24. There once was a pervert from Queens
Sun May 20, 2018, 06:47 PM
May 2018

Who liked to bang girls in their teens
He'd say to them, "Honey,
I'll give you some money,
If you'll just let me take off your Jeans"

The Blue Flower

(5,419 posts)
23. I wrote a limerick about him
Sun May 20, 2018, 06:42 PM
May 2018

Our swine of a president died.
"Let me in!" to St. Peter he cried.
"Well, Donald, the fact is
I must see your taxes."
"But I'm still under audit!" he cried.

red dog 1

(27,647 posts)
29. I wrote a limerick about him back in November, 2016 - right after he stole the presidency
Sun May 20, 2018, 06:55 PM
May 2018

There once was a dumb, racist phony
Who fed all the people baloney
But he won the election
Using lies and deception
With some help from Putin and Comey

ananda

(28,782 posts)
26. From Esther Leclerc ...
Sun May 20, 2018, 06:48 PM
May 2018

First stanza -- 45

Dreck writes itself,
caring not, says 'What the heck'
to all this rot - - that is, the thought
that words can mean an awful
lot or that they arise from a
Place that can't be sought.

Second stanza -- Melania

Now, Drivel differs in that it suffers
emotional leaks plus annoying squeaks,
stealing furtive peeks at others' works
for 'inspiration' (see plagiarization) ,
failing (silly jerk) to capture
the rapture of original quirk.

Botany

(70,291 posts)
30. The Cremation of our Liberty
Sun May 20, 2018, 07:01 PM
May 2018

There are strange things done in the D.C. sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Rock Creek trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The White House Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge ... Trump's ass was as big as a barge
Russia cremated our Liberty.

Thanx Bob S.

red dog 1

(27,647 posts)
103. I will be sure to credit Robert Service
Mon May 21, 2018, 06:12 PM
May 2018

But, aside from a seldom-used Twitter account and one social network I post on (not Facebook), I won't be able to spread it around too much.
I was hoping others would "make it go viral" because it's outstanding, imo.

[Thanks for posting it]

red dog 1

(27,647 posts)
131. Now Donald Trump and his big fat rump, was born in the borough of Queens
Tue May 22, 2018, 05:42 PM
May 2018

But his sheets were not satin, so he moved to Manhattan
As befits a man of his means
His heart was cold, but the land of gold
Seemed to hold him like a spell
He lusted for power, so as of this hour
We're all part of his nightmare from hell

struggle4progress

(118,039 posts)
32. "The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things:
Sun May 20, 2018, 07:06 PM
May 2018

of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax — of cabbages — and kings—
and why the sea is boiling hot — and whether pigs have wings"

Permanut

(5,436 posts)
65. Gracie Allen said about being born..
Sun May 20, 2018, 11:58 PM
May 2018

She said, "I was so surprised when I was born I didn't talk for a year and a half."

yonder

(9,631 posts)
54. Yes, this one from W.B. Yeats
Sun May 20, 2018, 08:38 PM
May 2018

The Second Coming

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of i{Spiritus Mundi}
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at laSt,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

malthaussen

(17,066 posts)
123. Yep, the question of the last two lines has been answered...
Tue May 22, 2018, 10:05 AM
May 2018

... although it is a mad beast, and he has been born in Washington DC.

-- Mal

 

oberliner

(58,724 posts)
51. Here's the whole poem
Sun May 20, 2018, 08:19 PM
May 2018

Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
Thy micturations are to me,(with big yawning)
As plurdled gabbleblotchits,
On a lurgid bee,
That mordiously hath blurted out,
Its earted jurtles, grumbling
Into a rancid festering confectious organ squealer. [drowned out by moaning and screaming]
Now the jurpling slayjid agrocrustles,
Are slurping hagrilly up the axlegrurts,
And living glupules frart and stipulate,
Like jowling meated liverslime,
Groop, I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes,
And hooptiously drangle me,
With crinkly bindlewurdles,mashurbitries.
Or else I shall rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon,
See if I don't!
(I probably won't!)

VOX

(22,976 posts)
52. "Epitaph on a Tyrant," by W. H. Auden, 1939
Sun May 20, 2018, 08:36 PM
May 2018

Epitaph on a Tyrant
W. H. Auden, 1907 - 1973

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

Glorfindel

(9,706 posts)
53. With apologies to W. Shakespeare
Sun May 20, 2018, 08:38 PM
May 2018

TRUMP:

"...now I am bent to know,
By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good,
All causes shall give way.
I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
Strange things I have in head, that will to hand,
Which must be acted ere they may be scanned."

Aristus

(66,092 posts)
55. "You sad, pathetic man, see where you've brought us to,
Sun May 20, 2018, 08:45 PM
May 2018

our ideals die around us all because of you..."

Lloyd-Webber and Rice.

lunatica

(53,410 posts)
59. "Life...is a tale told by an idiot,
Sun May 20, 2018, 08:55 PM
May 2018

full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” In Macbeth by Shakespeare

This quote was also used by the Washington Post by Eugene Robinson in September 2016

Response to red dog 1 (Original post)

Response to Plucketeer (Reply #69)

 

stevenleser

(32,886 posts)
70. Sir Walter Scott
Mon May 21, 2018, 01:32 PM
May 2018

For him no minstrel raptures swell;

High though his titles, proud his name,

Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,

Despite those titles, power, and pelf,

The wretch, concentred all in self,

Living, shall forfeit fair renown,

And, doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust from whence he sprung,

Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.

LakeArenal

(28,728 posts)
72. Thou shall not lie
Mon May 21, 2018, 01:53 PM
May 2018

Thou shall not commit adultery
Thou shall not steal
Thou shall not bear false witness
Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s goods

LiberalLovinLug

(14,153 posts)
75. Do music lyrics count?
Mon May 21, 2018, 03:05 PM
May 2018

Pink Floyd "Pigs" excerpt

Big man, pig man
Ha ha charade you are
You well heeled big wheel
Ha ha charade you are
And when your hand is on your heart
You’re nearly a good laugh
Almost a joker
With your head down in the pig bin
Saying “Keep on digging”
Pig stain on your fat chin
What do you hope to find
Down in the pig mine?

You’re nearly a laugh
You’re nearly a laugh
But you’re really a cry

c-rational

(2,581 posts)
82. When you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs....then you will be
Mon May 21, 2018, 03:18 PM
May 2018

a man my son. Not exact but that's what popped into my head.

malchickiwick

(1,474 posts)
84. Shakespeare: "Thou sodden-witted lord! Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows."
Mon May 21, 2018, 03:27 PM
May 2018

-- from Troilus and Cressida - Act II, Scene i.

Here are some other good lines by the bard that could be used to refer to the Traitor in Chief:

Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog! -- from Richard III - Act I, Scene iii.

Away, you starvelling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's-tongue, bull's-pizzle, you stock-fish! -- from Henry IV Part I - Act II, Scene iv.

Thou art a boil, a plague sore -- from King Lear - Act II, Scene ii.

Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon -- from Timon of Athens - Act IV, Scene iii.

The rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril -- from The Merry Wives of Windsor - Act III, Scene v.

Poisonous bunch-backed toad! -- from Richard III - Act I, Scene iii.

Away, you three-inch fool! -- from The Taming of the Shrew - Act III, Scene iii.

I scorn you, scurvy companion. -- from Henry IV Part II - Act II, Scene iv.

I am sick when I do look on thee. -- from A Midsummer Night's Dream - Act II, Scene i.

Methink'st thou art a general offence and every man should beat thee. -- from All's Well That Ends Well - Act II, Scene iii.

You poor, base, rascally, cheating lack-linen mate! -- from Henry IV Part II - Act II, Scene iv.

red dog 1

(27,647 posts)
93. + 1000
Mon May 21, 2018, 05:21 PM
May 2018

Especially:

"The rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril."

"Thou art a boil, a plague sore."

"I am sick when I do look on thee."
[I get sick when I even hear the bastard's voice on the radio]

DinahMoeHum

(21,737 posts)
88. Here's a song instead: If I had the wings of an eagle. . .
Mon May 21, 2018, 04:04 PM
May 2018

Last edited Wed May 23, 2018, 10:04 PM - Edit history (1)

. . .If I had the ass of a crow,
I'd fly over Donald Trump's tower
And shit on the bastard below.

Shit on, shit on, shit on the bastard below, below
Shit on, shit on, shit on the bastard below.

(With apologies to all the British soccer hooligans out there)

Leith

(7,802 posts)
90. Here Are a Couple
Mon May 21, 2018, 04:11 PM
May 2018

From Christina Rossetti poem Goblin Market:

We must not look at goblin men,
We must not buy their fruits:
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry thirsty roots?



As to IQ45's fate, from The Mikado:

To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!


TallMike

(161 posts)
105. I sing of olaf glad and big
Mon May 21, 2018, 06:28 PM
May 2018

whose warmest heart recoiled at war
a conscientious object-or

been my fave since I was but a wee lad.

kskiska

(27,041 posts)
106. An immediate reaction to our current commander-in-chief, in hopes it will all be over soon
Mon May 21, 2018, 06:59 PM
May 2018

(except for the line regarding guns)

You Might as Well Live

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp;
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

Dorothy Parker

marlakay

(11,370 posts)
107. The Mask of Evil
Mon May 21, 2018, 07:20 PM
May 2018

On my wall hangs a Japanese carving,
The mask of a evil demon, decorated with gold lacquer.
Sympathetically I observe
The swollen veins of the forehead, indicating
What a strain it is to be evil.

Bertolt Brecht

muriel_volestrangler

(101,150 posts)
108. Can I post a song lyric instead?
Mon May 21, 2018, 07:25 PM
May 2018

Offensive terms used below - but that's the point:



https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-waiting-for-the-worms-lyrics

We're waiting to succeed and going to convene outside Brixton Town Hall where we're going to be...

[Verse 2: Waters]
(Waiting) To cut out the deadwood
(Waiting) To clean up the city
(Waiting) To follow the worms
(Waiting) To put on a black shirt
(Waiting) To weed out the weaklings
(Waiting) To smash in their windows and kick in their doors
(Waiting) For the final solution to strengthen the strain
(Waiting) To follow the worms
(Waiting) To turn on the showers and fire the ovens
(Waiting) For the queens and the coons and the reds and the Jews
(Waiting) To follow the worms

[Verse 3: Gilmour and Waters]
Would you like to see Britannia
Rule again, my friend?
All you have to do is follow the worms
Would you like to send our coloured cousins
Home again, my friend?
All you need to do is follow the worms

vlyons

(10,252 posts)
109. Ozymandias By Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mon May 21, 2018, 07:39 PM
May 2018

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,276 posts)
116. Another good one.
Mon May 21, 2018, 10:43 PM
May 2018

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

vlyons

(10,252 posts)
111. mene mene tekel
Mon May 21, 2018, 07:44 PM
May 2018

From Daniel 5 - The handwriting on the wall at the feast of Balshazzar

Daniel reads the words "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN" and interprets them for the king: "MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed ... and found wanting;" and "PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

BlueTexasMan

(165 posts)
118. Red
Mon May 21, 2018, 11:42 PM
May 2018

Jackeline Chacon Aug 2014
"Red"

Red is the pain that bleeds
Red is the hatred that feeds

Red is the love that rots
Red is all evil thoughts

Red is desire for power

 

rtracey

(2,062 posts)
120. oh ok
Tue May 22, 2018, 08:17 AM
May 2018

There once was a shitstain named Trump, who sits on his ass like a lump. He fucked over his base, he's a national disgrace, he will soon be in prison getting fucked in the rump.

mia

(8,356 posts)
121. There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
Tue May 22, 2018, 08:58 AM
May 2018
There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

Fortinbras Armstrong

(4,473 posts)
122. Robert Burns, "A parcel of rogues"
Tue May 22, 2018, 09:37 AM
May 2018

Sung by Makem and Clancy



It's about the Scots selling out the independence to the English in the early 18th century for an immense bribe. Admittedly, the Scots government really needed the money after the Darien fiasco.

Or this, from Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach"

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Nitram

(22,671 posts)
124. Everything Shakespeare wrote was pure poetry.
Tue May 22, 2018, 11:16 AM
May 2018

Thou frothy tickle-brained hedge-pig!

Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog!

Thou art a boil, a plague sore

Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon

Thou sodden-witted lord! Thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows

QC

(26,371 posts)
125. How about a whole poem? Auden's "Epitaph on a Tyrant"
Tue May 22, 2018, 11:31 AM
May 2018

Epitaph on a Tyrant
W. H. Auden, 1907 - 1973

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

Fortinbras Armstrong

(4,473 posts)
126. This one will be appropriate when Trump dies (I also want to use it at Cheney's death)
Tue May 22, 2018, 11:56 AM
May 2018

"Epitaph on the Politician", by Hilaire Belloc

Here richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician's corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged
I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged.

FailureToCommunicate

(13,989 posts)
127. "Have you seen the bigger piggies In their starched white shirts..."
Tue May 22, 2018, 01:13 PM
May 2018

Have you seen the little piggies
Crawling in the dirt
And for all the little piggies
Life is getting worse
Always having dirt to play around in.
Have you seen the bigger piggies
In their starched white shirts
You will find the bigger piggies
Stirring up the dirt
Always have clean shirts to play around in.
In their styes with all their backing
They don't care what goes on around
In their eyes there's something lacking
What they need's a damn good whacking.
Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon.

Songwriters: George Harrison

red dog 1

(27,647 posts)
133. Good one!
Tue May 22, 2018, 07:20 PM
May 2018

If he were still alive today, I don't think Ray Bradbury would approve of Shitler or his crime family

usaf-vet

(6,094 posts)
129. "O what a tangled web we tweet, when we lie in every tweet, each and every day of the week!"
Tue May 22, 2018, 05:14 PM
May 2018

Donald Trump

gay texan

(2,403 posts)
130. Ahem...
Tue May 22, 2018, 05:32 PM
May 2018

The desert so flat,
The earth so shperearoidical
One can only hope
Trump gets terminally hemiroidial

Onyrleft

(344 posts)
132. -----
Tue May 22, 2018, 06:32 PM
May 2018

................

.................

And when questioned he'd rave,

"Just think of the money I'll save!"

Lady_Chat

(561 posts)
134. Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
Tue May 22, 2018, 07:20 PM
May 2018

"The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy technique of protective rationalization, and he was exhilarated by his discovery.
It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility,
plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice.
Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character."

BobTheSubgenius

(11,535 posts)
136. Auden
Tue May 22, 2018, 10:46 PM
May 2018

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Nay

(12,051 posts)
137. The Peace of Wild Things - Wendell Berry
Tue May 22, 2018, 11:10 PM
May 2018

This poem is not about Dumpster, but can help as an antidote to the madness:

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Lady_Chat

(561 posts)
140. Speaking of hope for better times: Jefferson on the "Reign of Witches"
Wed May 23, 2018, 04:23 AM
May 2018

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to
its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt…
And if we feel their power just sufficiently to hoop us together, it will be the happiest situation in which we can exist.
If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost,
for this is a game where principles are at stake."

—Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Taylor, June 4, 1798 in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson p. 1050.

Maybe someday, I hope.

Hekate

(90,189 posts)
159. I think this was after the passage of the Alien and Sedition Act...
Sat May 26, 2018, 09:05 PM
May 2018

...iirc, Jefferson was writing to Taylor who was in prison.

I had this quote to hand during Bush-Cheney's 8 years -- it does give one hope.

Generic Other

(28,979 posts)
141. Shakespeare would have lambasted Trump
Wed May 23, 2018, 09:14 AM
May 2018

It is a [tweet] told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5)

malthaussen

(17,066 posts)
142. I'd rather not dignify him...
Wed May 23, 2018, 10:03 AM
May 2018

... but I'll see what I can do:

Look at me, me, me!
Mommy, I'm President, see?
Now need go potty.

-- Mal

Uncle Joe

(58,111 posts)
143. Trump and Putin sitting in a tree
Wed May 23, 2018, 10:14 AM
May 2018

C O L L U D I N G
First comes lust with a golden shower
Then comes Mueller with subpoena power


Thanks for the thread red dog

Response to red dog 1 (Original post)

 

janterry

(4,429 posts)
153. The Stalin Epigram by Osip Mandelstam
Sat May 26, 2018, 05:20 PM
May 2018

The Stalin Epigram
Osip Mandelstam, 1891 - 1938

Our lives no longer feel ground under them.
At ten paces you can’t hear our words.

But whenever there’s a snatch of talk
it turns to the Kremlin mountaineer,

the ten thick worms his fingers,
his words like measures of weight,

the huge laughing cockroaches on his top lip,
the glitter of his boot-rims.

Ringed with a scum of chicken-necked bosses
he toys with the tributes of half-men.

One whistles, another meows, a third snivels.
He pokes out his finger and he alone goes boom.

He forges decrees in a line like horseshoes,
One for the groin, one the forehead, temple, eye.

He rolls the executions on his tongue like berries.
He wishes he could hug them like big friends from home
155. Verse 3 from Robert Burns "A Man's A Man"
Sat May 26, 2018, 05:36 PM
May 2018

Ye see yon berkie called a Lord
What Struts and Stares an a' that
Tho hundreds worship at his word
He's but a cuff for a' that
For all that and all that
His ribbon star and all that
The Man o' independent mind
He looks and laughs at a' that

3catwoman3

(23,812 posts)
163. A collaboration from Hekate and 3cat -
Sat May 26, 2018, 10:09 PM
May 2018

There was an old man in DC,
Whose dementia was firghtening to see.

He was without class,
And was totally crass.

That dreadful old man in DC.

(Lines 1,2 and 5 from Hekate/ 3 and 4 from 3cat)

MurrayDelph

(5,279 posts)
164. I'm not a poetry person, but I know show tunes
Sat May 26, 2018, 11:33 PM
May 2018

"How Could You Believe Me When I Said I love You (When you know I've been a Liar all my Life)?"

Marthe48

(16,691 posts)
168. O hideous little bat, the size of snot
Sun May 27, 2018, 10:34 AM
May 2018

As soon as I saw your post, I thought of this poem:

The Fly
BY KARL SHAPIRO
O hideous little bat, the size of snot,
With polyhedral eye and shabby clothes,
To populate the stinking cat you walk
The promontory of the dead man’s nose,
Climb with the fine leg of a Duncan-Phyfe
The smoking mountains of my food
And in a comic mood
In mid-air take to bed a wife.

Riding and riding with your filth of hair
On gluey foot or wing, forever coy,
Hot from the compost and green sweet decay,
Sounding your buzzer like an urchin toy—
You dot all whiteness with diminutive stool,
In the tight belly of the dead
Burrow with hungry head
And inlay maggots like a jewel.

At your approach the great horse stomps and paws
Bringing the hurricane of his heavy tail;
Shod in disease you dare to kiss my hand
Which sweeps against you like an angry flail;
Still you return, return, trusting your wing
To draw you from the hunter’s reach
That learns to kill to teach
Disorder to the tinier thing.

My peace is your disaster. For your death
Children like spiders cup their pretty hands
And wives resort to chemistry of war.
In fens of sticky paper and quicksands
You glue yourself to death. Where you are stuck
You struggle hideously and beg,
You amputate your leg
Imbedded in the amber muck.

But I, a man, must swat you with my hate,
Slap you across the air and crush your flight,
Must mangle with my shoe and smear your blood,
Expose your little guts pasty and white,
Knock your head sidewise like a drunkard’s hat,
Pin your wings under like a crow’s,
Tear off your flimsy clothes
And beat you as one beats a rat.

Then like Gargantua I stride among
The corpses strewn like raisins in the dust,
The broken bodies of the narrow dead
That catch the throat with fingers of disgust.
I sweep. One gyrates like a top and falls
And stunned, stone blind, and deaf
Buzzes its frightful F
And dies between three cannibals.

demigoddess

(6,640 posts)
169. Sir Walter Scott
Sun May 27, 2018, 10:59 AM
May 2018

Breathe there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand

If such there breathe, go mark him well.
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite these titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentered all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair reknown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.

Bozvotros

(782 posts)
171. The Walrus and the Carpenter - Lewis Carroll
Sun May 27, 2018, 06:35 PM
May 2018

Lewis Carroll had these guys pegged. Even penned a whole poem about Trump / Pence and the little oysters who follow them.

The Walrus and the Carpenter


By Lewis Carroll
"The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright —
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done —
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun."

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead —
There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
If this were only cleared away,'
They said, it would be grand!'

If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,' the Walrus said,
That they could get it clear?'
I doubt it,' said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

O Oysters, come and walk with us!'
The Walrus did beseech.
A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each.'

The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head —
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat —
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more —
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

The time has come,' the Walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —
Of cabbages — and kings —
And why the sea is boiling hot —
And whether pigs have wings.'

But wait a bit,' the Oysters cried,
Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!'
No hurry!' said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

A loaf of bread,' the Walrus said,
Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed —
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed.'

But not on us!' the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!'
The night is fine,' the Walrus said.
Do you admire the view?

It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!'
The Carpenter said nothing but
Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf —
I've had to ask you twice!'

It seems a shame,' the Walrus said,
To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!'
The Carpenter said nothing but
The butter's spread too thick!'

I weep for you,' the Walrus said:
I deeply sympathize.'
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

O Oysters,' said the Carpenter,
You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none —
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one."

AnnieBW

(10,350 posts)
172. The Second Coming - Yeats
Mon May 28, 2018, 02:22 PM
May 2018

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The Wizard

(12,482 posts)
175. From Willie The Shake
Tue May 29, 2018, 11:29 AM
May 2018

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
(Macbeth, Act V,sc. v)

red dog 1

(27,647 posts)
177. From "The Race" by Owen Pallenberg
Tue May 29, 2018, 05:40 PM
May 2018

The results of this race tore apart our land,
As millions of Muslims were immediately banned.
This man can do absolutely no good,
Except run his mouth and claim he was just misunderstood.
The man has stated "We need global warming" for all to hear,
Which has made me quite certain that the end is near.
He has called women ugly and fat,
Which has left me wondering how he could have won the race and done all that.
After insulting and making fun of men and women nationwide,
I've become mortified, horrified, and have lost all American pride.
Every time he talks or makes a speech,
All I can say is impeach, impeach, impeach!



To see entire poem,
Google:
"This 14-year-old's poem destroying Donald Trump has gone viral"

alfredo

(60,065 posts)
180. "We are the greatest city, the greatest nation: nothing like us ever was."
Thu May 31, 2018, 12:43 AM
May 2018

Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind
Carl Sandburg

Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind
Carl Sandburg, 1878 - 1967
The past is a bucket of ashes.

1

The woman named Tomorrow
sits with a hairpin in her teeth
and takes her time
and does her hair the way she wants it
and fastens at last the last braid and coil
and puts the hairpin where it belongs
and turns and drawls: Well, what of it?
My grandmother, Yesterday, is gone.
What of it? Let the dead be dead.


2

The doors were cedar
and the panels strips of gold
and the girls were golden girls
and the panels read and the girls chanted:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.

The doors are twisted on broken hinges.
Sheets of rain swish through on the wind
where the golden girls ran and the panels read:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.


3

It has happened before.
Strong men put up a city and got
a nation together,
And paid singers to sing and women
to warble: We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.

And while the singers sang
and the strong men listened
and paid the singers well
and felt good about it all,
there were rats and lizards who listened
… and the only listeners left now
… are … the rats … and the lizards.

And there are black crows
crying, “Caw, caw,"
bringing mud and sticks
building a nest
over the words carved
on the doors where the panels were cedar
and the strips on the panels were gold
and the golden girls came singing:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.

The only singers now are crows crying, “Caw, caw,"
And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.
And the only listeners now are … the rats … and the lizards.


4

The feet of the rats
scribble on the door sills;
the hieroglyphs of the rat footprints
chatter the pedigrees of the rats
and babble of the blood
and gabble of the breed
of the grandfathers and the great-grandfathers
of the rats.

And the wind shifts
and the dust on a door sill shifts
and even the writing of the rat footprints
tells us nothing, nothing at all
about the greatest city, the greatest nation
where the strong men listened
and the women warbled: Nothing like us ever was.

NCLefty

(3,678 posts)
181. Roses are red, violets are blue, Trump is orange and soon impeached too!
Sat Sep 28, 2019, 02:41 AM
Sep 2019

(Sorry for the necro but we need updated poetry for the impeachment. :p )

red dog 1

(27,647 posts)
182. Yes we do!
Sat Sep 28, 2019, 08:56 PM
Sep 2019

So I'll make one up right now.


Roses are red
Violets are blue
Trump is a fat pig
And a pathological liar too!

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