Dissent Is The Only Decent Response

DISSENT IS THE ONLY DECENT RESPONSE

I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
This world is run by lies, by greed and fear and trickery.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
Everywhere is conflict, bigotry, racism and sexism.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

“They’re changing guard at Buckingham Palace –
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.”
“The life of the poor and the life of the Queen
When looked at in contrast both seem quite obscene,”
Says Alice. “I may know, but I do not approve.”

~~~~~ ~ ~~~~~

This is part of Reena’s Exploration Challenge #108

On The Other Foot: Cinqku

ON THE OTHER FOOT

Men who
View women
As less than men
Are less than men if they
But saw

Sexism V. Feminism: Four By Six

SEXISM V. FEMINISM

There are those who get it
And then those who fail to
Who inflicts? Who suffers?
Balls or tits? Beside the point

Uncommon Knowledge

UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE

They lay down their law
“Men do this, women do that”
Stereotypes suck!

We are living proof
They overgeneralise
Nor are we alone

Pretty Boy Blind (A Four By Six)

PRETTY BOY BLIND

She is available
You’re irresistible
You don’t see a problem
And just there’s your problem

While The Fittest Survived …

WHILE THE FITTEST SURVIVED …

Man’s ego
(Note the gender)
Misreads the message
Sets God aside
Takes over
In a mindless haze
Heads heedlessly
For the nearest cliff

DADT (1994 – 2011) – A Villanelle

DADT (1994 – 2011)

Welcome to one Private’s unprivate personal hell
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Benny
Shot through the heart by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

A spiteful, misbegotten fear cloaked in a pious shell
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Denny
Welcome to one Private’s unprivate personal hell

Discharged to stop them tainting other personnel
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Jenny
Shot through the heart by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

There’s no marker on the battlefield where they fell
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Kenny
Welcome to one Private’s unprivate personal hell

Just to speak their love’s name was to rebel
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Lenny
Shot through the heart by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

They understood prejudice only too well
Let’s drink a toast in honour of Penny
Welcome to one Private’s unprivate personal hell
Shot through the heart by “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

——————————————————————

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT)

Qi

QI

Above all: Heaven
Then manifestation: Earth
And then finally: Man
(Sorry for the gender fudge
But that’s the way men call it)

Even White Folks Get The Blues

I see women here, yes, but no black folk yet.
One day before I pass over? Il faut espérer.

Same Again? (A Night Out On The Town)

SAME AGAIN?

Sheathed in leather the necrophiles
Straddle Babylon the Whore
While Memphis Kingston blows
(Like Britain grating through the Seventies
I have passed my high water mark
And the wrack stinks along the shore

Like the Royal Navy after an armistice
Full of unwanted and unnecessary seamen
A slave to vile passions)
It says on the bog wall: “What I’d like to know
Is who put the cunt in Scunthorpe?”
Would that my own purpose were so clear

Playing pub games of ancient artifice
Shouldering a passage through the wrecks
Gone aground at the bar
Floundering among all this flesh
Whose strangest suggestions
Are dancing lessons from a siren

Pondering the steps to take
When grace is not enough
And Helen of Troy picks her nose in the ladies
God in the guise of the Lady Incarnadine
Who took from me even my faith
And left me to carry on

O Dear Departed that thought to find
A genital Jesus to save ya
A fallacy – that he might be internally yours
And by a coincidence of opposites
Confused the sacerdotal with the scatological and thought
The penis mightier than the sword

——————————————————————

Republished from 2011.