Good for (Big) Business

Tags

poetry, poem, limerick, Limerick poem, Limerick poetry, Australian poet, Big corporations

𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 (𝐁𝐢𝐠) 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬

Dissenters, the chosen are purging.
“Comply with directives!” they’re urging.
“Just do as you’re told;
We’ll shower you with gold!”
The stockmarket? No surprise — surging!

— D.N. O’Brien

Joe Blow

Tags

Australian poet, Inauguration Day, Joe Biden, poem, poetry, sonnet, Spenserian sonnet

𝐉𝐨𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐰

You’ve banished Donald to the flaming pit;
So take the throne that you have slyly earned.
Joe, you have shown that surely does the shit
Float to the top — the tide of truth you’ve turned.
Your gaze averted as the cities burned;
As BLM supporters took their loot.
You and your Democrats were unconcerned
When masked ANTIFA thugs put in the boot.
Who would have thought that a demented coot
Would lead the greatest country on the Earth?
But votes were harvested — low-hanging fruit,
And even rotten windfalls were of worth.
Though you’re a husk that time will blow away,
Wake up Joe! It’s Inauguration Day!

— D.N. O’Brien

Da

Tags

Australian poet, Free Speech, Gulags, limerick, Limerick poem, Limerick poetry, poem, poetry

𝐃𝐚

Be careful what you say aloud.
Reactionaries not allowed.
Laugh the mob: “You’re insane!
You’ve gulags on the brain!”
The Russians don’t laugh quite as loud.

— D.N. O’Brien

Curve Balls-up

Tags

Australian poet, Covid-19 lockdown in Australia, Flatten the curve, Limerick poem, Limerick poetry, poem, poetry

𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬-𝐮𝐩

Do you recall “flatten the curve”?
It was gospel before the big swerve
To the extermination
Of Covid — our nation
Surrendered — the fools lost their nerve.

— D.N. O’Brien

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐄! 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐄! 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐄!!

Tags

Australian poet, Covid lockdown fines, Covid-19 lock-down, Limerick poem, Limerick poetry, poem, poetry

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐄! 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐄! 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐄!!

The way to control is now clear:
Rebellion must cost them too dear.
We’ll take till they’re poor,
For one thing is sure —
It’s fines that these free-thinkers fear.

— D.N. O’Brien

(If only the Bolsheviks could have been fined into submission….)

Vexatious Vikings

Tags

Australian poet, limerick, Limerick poem, Limerick poetry, No lock-downs in Sweden, poem, poetry, Swedish deaths from Covid-19, Swedish response to Covid-19

𝐕𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐢𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

There’s something wrong in Sweden,
From what I have been readin’.
Unlike us clowns
They’ve no lockdowns —
In deaths they should be leadin’.

— D.N. O’Brien

May it be so

Tags

Amen, Awoman, epigram, Hebrew words, poem, poetry, Rhyming couplets

𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐨

“Amen” it is sexist — old hat.
And I say “Awoman” to that.

— D.N. O’Brien

Approaching Critical Mass

Tags

Australian poet, limerick, Limerick poem, Limerick poetry, Oppression, poem, poetry

𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐬

It’s no secret, but lend me your ear:
Crowds are swelling; it’s coming, my dear.
They’ve had all they can take;
Soon their shackles they’ll break —
Their oppressors will tremble with fear.

— D.N. O’Brien

The Last Day

Tags

poem, poetry, sonnet, Spenserian sonnet

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐚𝐲

I worked with a man who was young and smart;
He was honest too, as the day is long.
Forty years ago did our paths then part,
And I thought forever, but I was wrong.
When I’d last known him he was straight and strong,
But the man I met on the year’s last day,
To my memories he did not belong:
He was bowed and bent and his hair was grey,
And he said as I shook his hand: “G’day”
In a feeble voice, (Oh his hand was cold),
And he gazed at me in the strangest way,
And he softly said: “Well you have grown old.”

So we reminisced, then said our goodbyes,
And he shuffled off — with his two good eyes.

— D.N. O’Brien

Eurasian Girl

Tags

Australian poet, Eurasians, Formal poetry, poem, poetry, Singapore Eurasians

𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥

Eurasian girl, I knew you well —
Your lips, your almond eyes, your smell;
And now I hear that you have died.
I promised I’d return……..I lied.

— D.N. O’Brien