It just so happened that all the shops
Were selling only lollipops,
Because the earth gets stale, you see,
And every mother’s son is free;
So snotty Ronnie, for heaven sake
Crapped all over his birthday cake;
And Bobby, loving bigger lies,
Had driven stakes into his eyes;
And Mary burned in private flame
To frizz her hair and brand her name
Upon a great, eclipsing ash,
Where good ol’ boys are born to bash,
Where, far way, the moonbird calls,
Where sweetest songs sing aching balls,
Where blank-eyed youths and bloodless hags
Were cutting farts while flying flags,
Where prophets moaned of profits lost
And peddled cult as pentecost:
And all the world sang frilly fluff
When God looked down and said, “Enough!”
Nice, well sustained.
I didn’t get all the references friend but it seems to me you are fairly “pissed off” at a generation squandering their inheritance.
Thanks ChimneySeep & DEB,
Lines 1-4: Society is selling mind and eye candy, not belonging.
Lines 5-6: Ronnie sold his birthright for a mess of porrage.
Lines 7-8: Bobby destroyed his vision by longing for something beyond his own potential, some abstract finality as escape from uncertainty.
Lines 9-on: Mary tries to identify with the social circus as described.
All of the characters named in the poem are caught in the conflict between personal and social identities, between realizations of the One and the Many. The society depicted here has gone decadent because it sells identity but does not even realize what identity entails. It preaches religions at a price. It preaches patriotism as exclusive, self-oriented ego enhancement. This is an angry poem, written when I was very young. the anger still lingers.