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Saturday 19 November 2011

If your name's on it...

You never hear the one that gets you!
My dad, returning from his war,
told me some things that he'd been sold,
among them, this one, very old,
left over from an earlier war. 
It spoke of shells and bombs and bullets. Boy,
you never hear the one that bears your name!

It's true, of course: the bullet's speed
outstrips the sound;
you hear it when you're dead. The one
you hear arriving
has passed by overhead.

The wise old owls up in their trees
thought nuggets such as these
would make men more relaxed,
less worried by the sound effects.

These more enlightened days
we're less naive:
they'd not have conned the likes of us!
Who listens now to canned advice?
for instance, thinks that Get
rich quick, or die in the attempt
is code for living well?
        But that's the philosophy
        that's the monstrosity
        of second hand living,
        of life less the giving -
        how lifeless is that?

So when the bombshell crisis
landed in the banks,
bursting among us punters,
remember what they said,
those manning the financial line?

We never saw it coming!

13 comments:

Windsmoke. said...

I really don't believe the last line because so many greedy people walked away with millions or in some cases billions of dollars when the GFC happened :-(.

The Unknowngnome said...

It's a great idea isn't it, those wise old owls trying to con again with canned advice?

Yet worse, the wise old owls now have their technocrats running governments directly, i.e. Greece, Italy with more to follow.

And still some will never see it coming.

Good one Dave.

haricot said...

The war zone comes slyly, and the invisible line overhangs us until to kill us. The new line would be observed after many people died without seeing the line.

sunny said...

xcellent idea Mr Dave.

Rose said...

Yes, 'life less the giving - how lifeless is that' Well said and well written. Like the clever comparison with your father's war story.

Mary said...

Packs a punch, Dave, like a bombshell! Some 'bombshells' we can survive, some not.

ds said...

Amen. "Life less the giving" is no life at all. They were too busy taking to know the difference.

hyperCRYPTICal said...

Brilliant poem, brilliant observation, clever stuff!

Anna :o]

Maude Lynn said...

Outstanding write with sharp ending!

Brian Miller said...

nice...great write man...they saw it coming though...it was a fools gamble and the snake bit them...and we bailed them out so that they could charge fees so we can use our money...the only loser here is the people...and we act like we never saw it coming...

JJ Roa Rodriguez said...

Excellent write indeed...

JJRod'z

Jenny Woolf said...

Many of us look back and think we did see it coming. I wonder if we really did.

Dave King said...

Windsmoke
But that's what they said!

The unknowngnome
Yes, sadly very true.

haricot
Yes, I think I see where you are coming from.

sunny
Thanks sunny

Rose
Thank you for a most helpful comment.

Mary
That's very true, too. This one? Guess we'll have to wait and see!

ds
Looks that way, I'm afraid.

HyperCRYPTICal
Many thanks for your response. Much appreciated.

Mama Zen
Thank you so much for this.

Brian
Yes, "We never saw it coming" were their words, of course. But why should we believe them? Did we see it coming? We should have. We certainly knew it might happen, but whether we were sufficiently awake to see it, I'm not sure.

JJ Roa
Sincere thanks for the comment.

Jenny
I think we mainly had vague anxieties that something bad was likely to happen.