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Collected Poetry
VOLUME NINETEEN 
Original materials - Copyright © 2023-24 by Gary Bachlund All international rights reserved
"Political events move from one impasse to the next, like a torrent caught in gullies, creeks, and marshes. All human control comes to an end when the individual is caught in a mass movement. Then the archetypes begin to function, as happens also in the lives of individuals when they are confronted with situations that cannot be dealt with in any of the familiar ways." In "Civilization in Transition," C.G. Jung, trans. R. F. C. Hull, Princeton University Press, 1964.
I'm from off, so I've been told
I'm from off, so I've been told,
as I am not from here.
Yes I am, and from somewhere else,
depending on which year.
I got here about just as fastas just I really could,
Given that I had no plan,
or one time had withstood.
I'm from off, so does it seem;
it might remain this way,
Until somewhere else next will call
to carry me off -- away.
Old Joe and his kin are gone insane
Old Joe and kin are gone insane;
Whatever shall they do?
They rage and rail in words inane
To a press that serves their stew.A suspicious world is strolling off,
Ears closing to the screech.
A world away can smirk and scoff,
Far beyond insanity's reach.
Old Joe and kin are gone insane;
Whatever shall they do?
Time will tell with words quite plain
Not found in a headline's view.A weary world is learning well,
Steered clear of those who've sinned.
A world away turns more away,
Far from Joe's spun whirlwind.
Look behind those walls of words
"The point of a free media is to challenge authority, especially massive incursions on human rights, but many of us became cheerleaders for the health bureaucracy and politicians, assuming all were faithfully acting in the public interest. It’s well established that the global financial crisis was the product in large part of the capture of financial regulators by powerful banking interests, leading to far lower levels of capitalisation than socially desirable. Why would the same forces not be at work in medicine, where the biggest pharmaceutical companies, who stood to gain billions of dollars in profit from vaccine mandates, exerted huge influence over regulators, which they themselves fund?" In "Media Is to Blame for Covid Vaccines’ Wall of Infallibility," by Adam Creighton, Brownstone, 4 April 2023.
Look behind those walls of words.
There's fluff and bluff each undergirds.
Mighty in their seeming strength
Solely for their width and length,
But paper-thin the papered prose
As one peers behind and knows
Walls of words lie vain and flat,
Each papered tiger a pussycat.
Walls protect bureaucracies
By fending off one's liberties.
Peer behind the walls of words.
There's fluff and bluff each undergirds.
“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don’t have brains enough to be honest.” Benjamin Franklin
Always question everything;
Lies despise such thought.
The con men and the liars
And the media they've bought,
The manufactured outrage,
And nudging's loud onslaught,
For such as these time teaches well
Of cons and lies' juggernaut.
Always question everything.
And again, for emphasis -- “Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don’t have brains enough to be honest.” Benjamin Franklin
You'll get your jolly big slice
of delicious pie in the sky.
The unicorns shall deliver it
In their sweet by-and-by.
Stir your imagination
In order to amplify
The size of your big jolly slice
of imagined pie in the sky.
The recipe is all political,
on which the folk rely,
And after baking carefully
There's nothing to verify
That you'll get your tasty slice
of that fictitious, fabled pie.
Addendum of California Reparations: "One day, America’s black citizens will realize that Democrats always make promises they will not or cannot fulfill. The latest example is the reparations folly currently playing out in California. Black Californians are beginning to realize they were watching Kabuki reparations theater." In "California Dems sowed the reparations wind and are reaping the whirlwind," by Andrea Widburg, American Thinker, 14 May 2023.
Addendum of German Anti-worker Unions: "...workers can only defend their wages if they free themselves from the straitjacket of the unions and set up independent action committees functioning as genuine organs of struggle, controlled by workers, capable of taking strikes into their own hands...." In "German pseudo-left groups defend union’s wage cut for public service workers," by Christoph Vandreier, World Socialist Web Site, 14 May 2023.
A rose is a rose is a rose,
And an is is an is that is.
A rose arose, as being is,
As most every being knows.
Serve a plate of trend du jour
Serve a plate of trend du jour,
for what else is there in the sewer?
Be for this, then be for that,
no body shamed for gorging fat.
No repugnance at another thing
with which you simply cannot swing.
No judgment yet for what is said
in headlines, all with judgment fed.
Serve a dish of tomorrow's soup,
assured to be excrement-salted poop.
Child's play / in the City by the Bay
" 'The contamination is ... much greater than communities in Brazil or Kenya or India,' says Riley, who researched health conditions caused by extreme poverty in some of the world's poorest regions."
In "San Francisco Squalor: City Streets Strewn With Trash, Needles And Human Feces," by Samantha Raphelson, NPR, 1 August 2018.
One little druggie strolls Market.
Two little druggies snort coke.
Three little druggies jab needles.
Drugs keep many more broke.
And each little druggie goes....
... wee, wee, wee all the way down.
Addendum: "The city and its partners, like the AIDS Foundation, collect around 275,000 used syringes each month, about 8,000 of which come from on-the-ground sweeps like the one the new AIDS Foundation team will be conducting, said Joe Hollendoner, the foundation’s CEO. Needles are also collected from syringe-disposal boxes located in areas where drug use is prevalent. 'No needles on the streets — that’s our goal,' Garcia said." In "SF to get team dedicated to clearing used needles from city’s streets," by Dominic Fracassa, San Francisco Chronicle, 23 April 2018.
Addendum: "How dirty is San Francisco? An NBC Bay Area Investigation reveals a dangerous mix of drug needles, garbage, and feces throughout downtown San Francisco. The Investigative Unit surveyed 153 blocks of the city – the more than 20-mile stretch includes popular tourist spots like Union Square and major hotel chains. The area – bordered by Van Ness Avenue, Market Street, Post Street and Grant Avenue – is also home to City Hall, schools, playgrounds, and a police station. 'We see poop, we see pee, we see needles, and we see trash,' said teacher Adelita Orellana. 'Sometimes they ask what is it, and that’s a conversation that’s a little difficult to have with a 2-year old, but we just let them know that those things are full of germs, that they are dangerous, and they should never be touched'." In "Survey of Downtown San Francisco Reveals Trash on Every Block, 303 Piles of Feces and 100 Drug Needles," by Bigad Shaban, Robert Campos, Tony Rutanooshedech and and Michael Horn, NBC Bay Area, 6 December 2018.
Let's all define all our terms
Let's all define all our terms
Until the cows come home.
Let's chatter on incessantly
And fill an empty tome.
Let's shutter all the barn doors
Though the livestock has run off,
Because we know how right we are
Though left as others scoff.
Let's protest counter-protests
To protest that other folks
Don't vote for what we'd vote for,
But think our views are jokes,
Let's rage against the raging
And hate all those who hate.
Such is our lofty righteousness
With virtue quite irate.
Musical chairs -- the game to play.
Musical chairs -- it's underway.
Musical chairs -- someone loses today.
Musical chairs -- there's one less seat.
Musical chairs -- much seems so much less upbeat.
Musical chairs -- all must compete, bittersweet.
Musical chairs -- and most will lose.
Musical chairs -- who'll cry their blues.
Musical chairs -- ah, the question's whose....
Seem's nice, but I'm not doin' that
Seem's nice, but I'm not doin' that.
Go find some other pliant sap.
Once burned, twice shy; that's where it's at,
No interest in the well-laid trap.
The emptor's read each caveat,
And so, for this, I shall recap:
Seem's nice, but I'm not doin' that.
Go find some other trusting sap.
