Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Merrily Merrily Merrily Merrily...life is but a Dream!...



The Grateful Dead
By Obsidian c.2013



God is good
God is merciful
to the dead

to those who have
died before their time
and are left to roam
a scorched & inhabited earth

as citizens
of the Great USA
& of the world
denizens of the departed

partying a little too loud
above the dens
of crowded bars
& Irish pubs

glasses held high
in a myriad of toasts
& braggadocio boasts
of how the glow has
left their eyes
eons
afore the founding
of the world

they brag out loud
@ poetry haunts
in metered poems
haikus
& yes!
iambic pentameters

curse verses for the dead
those flamboyant party animals
set about as traps
in your love-feasts
& soirées

keep your eye peeled
on them
for these are the fortunate ones
counted among the grateful dead
the departed
life of the parties

merrily saying all along
words like
we didn't start the fire
& it will go on
without us...


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Hobo Handbook: Memoirs of a Homeless Poet in New York (Excerpt #45)




THE HOBO HANDBOOK: MEMOIRS OF A HOMELESS POET IN NEW YORK
By Daniel Canada c.2010




Next, we step over into the territory and domain of the government, an honorable institution, designed to take care of the many and varied needs of its citizens. In here we will discover just how this bureaucracy functions, when it comes around to providing for the homeless and less fortunate ones. So, let's have a look-see at these establishments, shall we?





                         
                              

        

CHAPTER FOUR THE GOVERNMENT


"The best thing you can do for the poor is not to become one of them."-Rev. Ike [Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter the 2nd]


GOVERNMENT is defined as “A form or system of rule by which a state is governed.” At this point I wish to make a necessary clarification. When I talk about the government, I am not referring to the President of the United States, Congress, The Senate, or the House of Representatives, which, for the most part, work hard in their assigned tasks to serve the country. Neither am I referring to the Governor of the State and the local State organs of administration.

I am, however, referring to the national and local bureaucratic machinery, with its countless, cumbersome, wheels and tired cogs, which churn endlessly to no-one’s advantage but its own.

That’s right. I’m shinning a flashlight into the gnarly cracks and crevices of the hither-to-unknown, little, comfortable, and useless, government, civil-servant-bureaucrat.

These are the jokers, who sit behind enormous desks with their eyes glued to their watches, counting time and waiting to get in enough years accumulated, in order to get a fat, cushy, government retirement check. Yes, I’m referring to these bastards, as well as the apparatus that deals with housing the homeless and, supposedly, helping them acquire a decent place of residence. This includes the office of Public Assistance, which is supposed to provide adequate food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid assistance to those who qualify, as well. If there was such an animal as “Quality Assurance,” you can rest assure these guys and gals would fail woefully in measuring up to the aptitude of their task.

First, I will discuss the pathetic office of Public Assistance.

Already I see the miserly bureaucrats running for cover and ducking under the protection of their paper-latent desks.

(To be continued...)