So What?

[Hawkman]

Bugger the butterflies, bugger the hills,
Bugger the daffodils, floating like spills,
Show me a skyscraper plated in glass
Show me a motorway ploughing through grass:

How you survive for the rest of your lives
Isn’t a subject that’s fit for my eyes,
Let there be famine and let there be war
Gravediggers tally the body-count score.

Tanks and machineguns received with due thanks,
Fighters and bombers; the cost drains our banks.
Grumman and Lockheed are grateful, I’m sure,
Pay them the money, but still they want more,

Jobs will depend on the loot that we spend
Paying for fusion reactors that end
In glorious meltdowns that poison the earth;
Surely a subject for unrestrained mirth.

Nature is savage and nature is cruel
Kill or be killed—dog eat dog is the rule.
So don’t be so soppy and don’t be so wet
Nobody cares, long as targets are met.

[Delta40]

Excellent. A wonderfully dry poem with great flow!

[Mohammad Ahmad]

It is being a military chant, indeed I find a pleasure on many verses of it, but how dog eats dog this is not in our culture we always said that dog never eats dog because they are from the same family

[DATo]

Liked it, but I think you meant "Fission" reactors rather than "Fusion" reactors. There are no fusion reactors yet though they are desperately working to create them. Fusion is the safe kind of nuclear energy.

[Hawkman]

Thank you Delta, MA & DAto, for reading and commenting. Glad you enjoyed it Delta :)

MA, Not really intended as a military chant, but I can see how it could be interpreted as such. My intention was to satirise corporatism, as much as anything. I accept what you say about cultural differences re the expression "dog eat dog" though the justification you cite doesn't stand up to too close a scrutiny - just look at mantises and spiders! :D

DAto: actually, I did mean fusion, though I was cognisant that fusion is supposed to be "safe." But then, lots of things are supposed to be safe, in theory. It isn't until someone builds something supposedly safe, and unleashes some apocalyptic blight on the world, that we find out it isn't. The first atomic pile was built in a squash court. Very safe. They told us in the late forties and fifties that we'd all be driving around in nuclear powered cars... The realities are Chernobyl and Onkalo. I chose fusion specifically because of the topical recent press release by Lockheed Martin, stating that they were developing fusion reactor technology. Just imagine what will happen if one of those goes critical. Would you live next door to one? How "safe" would you feel? ;)

Live and be well - H

[Mohammad Ahmad]

Thank you Hawkman since you spoke about your mode.
Yes I touched the sarcastic tone, I knew that, but it can be interpreted as I previously mentioned, especially for a soldier finding himself far away from home so he turns disgusted for the duty and everything he sees looked black on eyes.
However, this is maybe a reasonable way to understand poetry or to analyze any poet intention; otherwise, it is always like your description. I myself have read such poems for the American soldiers before leaving my country like one's poem: Christmas in Fallujah. .
For "Dog never eats dog", it is a proverb on our culture and for instance, "if two persons of a same aim and their interests meet other, they won't fight between. This is the pragmatic meaning or the implied meaning, moreover the expression in English I know its meaning, which it is "ruthlessly competitive", and here in English language, also it has negative sense.
Again I thank you to your a good poem

[Jerrybaldy]

Anything that satires corporatism has my vote Mr H. I heard this new low point in "corporate speak" the other day.... " let's put that in the thought fridge and we can snack on it later". Actually a whole poem of corporate speak could be fun. But that may just be blue sky thinking.

[AuntShecky]

I heard this new low point in "corporate speak" the other day.... " let's put that in the thought fridge and we can snack on it later". Actually a whole poem of corporate speak could be fun.

Do it! Pretty please for your l'l ole auntie.

[Hawkman]

JB, Thanks for reading. For some reason an image of Stephen Fry leaps to mind on reading your comment about corporate newspeak. Can it be that you heard this little gem on QI? :D

Auntie, it is unclear whether you are exhorting JB to take up your challenge or li'l ol' me! You might remember this (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?61515-Sinecure&p=1034816&viewfull=1#post1034816), though perhaps it falls a little short of being worded entirely in corporate jargon. Do you think middle management executives win prizes for inventing ever sillier baby-speak euphemisms? Is it possible they will be hurled down, down, down through the glass ceilings by enraged vice presidents in charge of vice presidents, if their banter isn't silly enough? let's hope jargon hating goes viral and all the sinecures die of flu.

Live and be well - H

[DieterM]

Rings a bell, H, definitely rings a bell. Of course, what I hear on a daily basis is a) in French, b) doesn't rhyme, and c) lacks your wit and irony. My boss has learned some stupid phrases during his university career and takes them out at least once a week, offering them like diamonds. Which they ain't.
Anyway, your poem—very funny and well written, my friend :-)

[Hawkman]

Glad you like it, Dieter. You have my sympathy, languishing in thrall to a pretentious middle management executive! How awful for you! What you need to do is go to work with a pet leopard :D That should make him reevaluate his status :D

Live long and prosper - H

[AuntShecky]

Auntie, it is unclear whether you are exhorting JB to take up your challenge or li'l ol' me! You might remember this (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?61515-Sinecure&p=1034816&viewfull=1#post1034816), though perhaps it falls a little short of being worded entirely in corporate jargon. Do you think middle management executives win prizes for inventing ever sillier baby-speak euphemisms? Is it possible they will be hurled down, down, down through the glass ceilings by enraged vice presidents in charge of vice presidents, if their banter isn't silly enough? let's hope jargon hating goes viral and all the sinecures die of flu.



Either one of you! You're both up to the challenge.
Re: jargon. Not only is corporate lingo bad, so is teacher-talk. Half the trouble w. the American school system can be attributed to Educationese, all their "facilitating" and "implementation," etc. The PC has gotten to such a point where they are reluctant even to say "student." They prefer to say "learner," which strikes me as a little presumptuous.

And not to be picky-- but "sinecure"--how is it possible fot it to die of the flu? I believe the word refers to a perk bestowed on clerics outside of ecclesiastical duties, like a nice country estate or something. In modern times the meaning expanded to compensation for little or no work. I'm not criticizing. Maybe you were using personification.

Keep the original stuff comin'!

Auntie

[Hawkman]

You may rest assured that "educationese" is not confined to the States. It is prevalent over here too. I, also, object to the classification, "learner," which is applied indiscriminately to those who may, or may not be, learning. As for the sinecures, I was indeed personifying the post, or sinecure, through the post holder. I don't see why they shouldn't die of flu. At least a post holder is someone who holds a post. I rather detest the term "stakeholder" when referring to those who might merely have an interest in something. "Holder" implies possession or ownership, which interest does not. There is a difference.

Hi ho.

Live and be well - H

[AuntShecky]

I'd never use the word "stakeholder," not even for somebody about to off Count Dracula.
Almost time for Game 2 of the World Series. This is your auntie signing off.

[Haunted]

My noodles are in a tight little knot and so I'm stuck somewhere between nature, skyscrapers and big guns but food for thought nevertheless as your poems are always.

[Hawkman]

Get thee to a sauna, Haunted! That way you can steam your noodles :D That should soften them up nicely... Much easier for you to sever that Gordian knot with a well placed slice :devil: thanks for reading :)

Live and be well - H

[Haunted]

I know I know I need some serious treatment... sauna sounds good, kinda like being inside a Hawk fusion reactor :incazzato::troll:

[Hawkman]

I've never tried fusing hawks, perhaps I can save the planet with a totally organic energy source :smilielol5: I should warn you that the added pressure of compression required to achieve fusion in the reactor may give extra force to the ejection of mutes (guano) though. Don't forget to don a sou'wester! Do let me know if I can help with your treatment :devil:

Live and be well - H

[virtuoso]

I have to be a bit of a contrarian (do you like that improvised word?) here. I think that using nuclear power in our energy industry has been a success. We did have Three Mile Island, but the human and property losses were inconsequential. As for Chernobyl, I agree that the Russians are not reliable managers of nuclear energy, but that goes for about everything, including their overall economy. If fusion becomes a reality and it is strictly regulated by government, then I have no problem with it. What if the early men that discovered fire had known the monumental losses that it would cause? Would they still have used it as a ready resource. I think so. Fire has cost millions of lives, since it was utilized as an energy source. Nuclear power has only cost a few lives. Now I am not naive, I know that nuclear energy has the capacity to be a million times more destructive, but if it can be harnessed, and used in a safe manner, then I am for it.

[Hawkman]

"Safe" is both relative and illusory.

[virtuoso]

Very true