Tag Archives: poem about modern life

Man Vs. Machine

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Man Vs. Machine

It is expedient that we convene
to discuss this new machine.
With teamwork, could we not achieve
all our higher-ups believe
needs to be done by this contraption
that according to its caption
can do the work of many men,
perhaps, it says, the work of ten?

Farewell to manpower, hello panic.
Made obsolete by things mechanic!
While ensconced in our cocoons,
it seems that corporate buffoons
have been brisk to seal our fate
and, alas, we’ve learned too late
that man by man, we’ll be ejected
by this means today detected.

And this is why I’m doubly keen
on dealing with this damn machine,
for men have brains but robots don’t.
If we retaliate, it won’t,
I think that we should make the hit
and simply throw a wrench in it!
Thereby persuading all our bosses
of better ways to stem their losses.

Word prompts today are cocoon, brisk, teamwork, expedient, discuss and farewell.

Selfie Generation

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I sat in the food court at the mall yesterday and watched an eight or nine-year-old girl and her baby sister, who couldn’t have been more than three, posing for selfies at a table, the smaller girl mimicking her “older” sister’s every pouty, hopefully sensual grimace. They finally became aware of the fact that I was photographing them photographing themselves and they shifted chairs, turning their backs to me, but went on for another few minutes, determining the face they wanted to turn to the world by what they saw reflected in the older sister’s phone.

Selfie Generation

I like a crinkly sort of smile
that lacks a single trace of guile.
Smiles sinister are not my thing,
nor are the polar chills they bring.

Selfies contain In their morass 
little I might label class.
Sexy smiles, much composed
of postured puckers, planned and posed.

Babies imitate their sisters,
miming come-ons to strange misters
who might stumble on their page
that online might become the rage.

They learn the lingo and the walk.
Mime the postures, talk the talk.
Mindful of how they come and go,
everything done for the show.

Prompt words today are morass, sinister, crinkle, polar, talk and come.

Requiem for the Ode: SOCS, Aug 21, 2021

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Requiem for the Ode

Sorry, but these days an ode
is a form that’s out of mode.
And as tacky as it seems,
modern folks have chosen memes
to convey their inner selves,
and even though a poem delves
with soul in what we want to say,
alas, emojis rule the day.

emojis and

For Stream of Conciousness Saturday: Ode

Mall Mode

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Mall Mode

Shopping malls and market finds are sites of great commotion.
They thrive on hype and slick techniques and tactics of promotion.

They are keen on chicanery that brings you in to buy.
You simply cannot wait to get your portion of the pie.

Pizza Huts and Burger Kings vie for your attention
if you seek a little break to ease the shopping tension.

But you must know the lingo that goes with hot new styles.
The modern world depends on more than simply fashion’s wiles.

When you see a friend’s dope shoes as well as her new hat,
you know enough to call them goat and not to call them phat.

Prompts today are market finds, keen, technique, chicanery and promotion. I might even try to squeeze in some prompts from Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Her prompts today are: “hat,”  “hit,” “hot,” and “hut.” Image by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash, used with permission.

Designer Diets

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Designer Diets

I’m in need of a diet in front and behind,
yet I cannot survive on such food as the kind
that dieting gurus decree I must chew
like all of the reigning glamor queens do.

Designer lettuce and parsley and kale
with a soupcon of dressing is what they inhale.
They do not eat Oreos, bon bons or gummies.
They deterge their colons and staple their tummies.

No carbohydrates of any kind
will they order in diners, even in a bind.
And so they go hungry, albeit they’re svelte,
but I think I would rather just loosen my belt.

 

Prompts today are surviving, design, soupcon, deterge and kind.

Too Much Information

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DSCF1865 - Version 3jdbphoto


Too Much Information

There is too much of everything—
things constantly developing.
There is no time to fool around.
We’re always off and “somewhere bound.”
The days of lying in the grass
and watching ants? They are long past.
Instead I lie upon my back
with laptop and my battery pack,
plugged into the confusing world,
downloading facts dispensed and whirled
together in my spinning brain.
I want a simple world again
composed of only what’s around me.
All these facts stress and confound me—
glossing over the fact that
I’m really only where I’m at!

Ironic that as I tried to save this, my computer refused to do so or to add the photograph to the post  because the startup disk was full.  No more memory––too much information!!! I’m going to try to post this, remove things from my computer, and then post the photo to go with it. (After one hour of removing files from my computer—success!!! Photo is added.)

Overwhelming is the prompt word today.