Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Sythe-Eyed Science




image from pixabay.com

Sythe-Eyed Science

“The debate is settled. Climate change is a fact.”
--Barack Obama .

I stand city-hating
upon a weeping-pier,
as too many of us
are grave groping;
wearing hats of sand
above our feet of clay.

I scream at the night-flyers,
dark-voweled and verbiage scatting:
Put down your damn phones,
before your dust-tonguing
and text-weeding leads
to galloping calamity.

Scientists point to map-backed
troubled-spots, while gaggles
of unbelieving dullards,
all stoned lark-high and hare-heeled
on Fox propaganda, will wade
waist-deep in fresh winged-sea
along new coastlines.

Clouds of hemlock-fingered
factory-punked poison
are heaven-circling high above
the ever-growing space junk
and the blaspheming astronauts,
making our beautiful blue planet
appear shit-faced and disease-pocked.

Yesterday, while unwatched and solitary-smiling,
Notre Dame erupted fire-dwarfed
and gargoyle-eyed after faulty wiring
ignited centuries-old oak, infecting
the roof with flame-anger, as
the great spire ash-toppled
in weeping-swirls and pigeon down.

Muffle-toed vermin
become fodder for Nature’s
tide-looped talons.



Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub-Poetics

17 comments:

brudberg said...

Alas in the end we will all be swallowed by the waves... nature will not differentiate between the ignorant and scientist... it has the same claws ready for all of us.

Laura Bloomsbury said...

a veritable noah's ark of word-compounds - two by two you wove some powerful imagery and I loved the words!
"Clouds of hemlock-fingered
factory-punked poison
are heaven-circling high above
the ever-growing space junk"

Nice pun too - hare-heeled on Fox propaganda

Merril D. Smith said...

I like Laura's comment about the two by two word-compounds. I feel like this one should be performed. Did you mention Richard Burton in another comment? That would be perfect. :)

Jade Li said...

You said a lot here in Dylan-speak, Glenn!

My favorite lines:
" as too many of us
are grave groping;
wearing hats of sand
above our feet of clay."

All around very skillful word-weaving!

Kim M. Russell said...

I like where you’ve taken the prompt. Glenn, and how you’ve used compound words to emphasise the point. I love the sound of the title and the strident lines:

‘I scream at the night-flyers,
dark-voweled and verbiage scatting:
Put down your damn phones,
before your dust-tonguing
and text-weeding leads
to galloping calamity.’

They need to be told! And what a way to describe pollution:

‘Clouds of hemlock-fingered
factory-punked poison

making our beautiful blue planet
appear shit-faced and disease-pocked.’

Please record this in your best Richard Burton tones, Glenn!

AnotherFearlessYear.net said...

Dylan-esque word compounds suit you. Besides your Quadrilles, this is my favorite of all your poems I've read so far.

sarah said...

Some great coining of compounds here and an angry outpouring that works so well.

Grace said...

You also concocted your own compound words Glenn. Love the theme of nature:
our beautiful blue planet appear shit-faced and disease-pocked.

And I am specially touched by the burning of Notre Dame which you described as succinctly: Notre Dame erupted fire-dwarfed and gargoyle-eyed

Frank Hubeny said...

It is very unfortunate about Notre Dame.

I liked these lines: "all stoned lark-high and hare-heeled
on Fox propaganda"

robkistner said...

Leaves me cripple-lipped, mouth-gaped and tongue-mortised!

Truedessa said...

You are truly a word-smith the way you weave magic into your writing. I wish some would put down the cell-phones, especially tweeting the unthinkable. sigh..

Candy said...

Wow! This is impactful and frighteningly true. Love your very own hyphenated words.

A Reading Writer said...

biting verbings here!! such a classic poetic spit to the claws killing us all.

these lines are epic: wearing hats of sand
above our feet of clay.

calmkate said...

Brilliant weaving of the prompts making such a powerful statement about today's troubles!

Jane Dougherty said...

Full of energy and fire.

Sabio Lantz said...

Full of anger again. I get it.
But I am amazed at so much attention and money and news attached to the chapel while suppering abounds with living people.

Frank J. Tassone said...

The prophetic tone, expressed in staccato alliteration and stark imagery, is a wake-up shakeup! I love these lines from your opening, especially:

"too many of us
are grave groping;
wearing hats of sand
above our feet of clay."