Orphaned Islands (Un)poetry

Good news can be mistaken –
phew, it’s okay, but it’s not
but bad – terminal – a look that can’t feign
you just know..
Screwed.
Trashed.
***ked.

The technician called the boss over,
but I already knew
he came to the counter –
“….. It’s had it ….
…much more cost-effective to get a new one,
I’lI get that organized.”
Truth speaks what proof of purchase hasn’t yet
but will
“ it’s more than a year old …. outside warranty ..
ummm.”
The tone is stern – very – but not in dispute,
clarification,
“ I don’t care about a piece of paper
I’m not having anyone say they bought a machine from me
and it only lasted 15 months
you’re having a new one. No charge.”

 

April 25 –  Anzac day New Zealand’s equivalent of Memorial Day or Armistice Day. The occasion on which those who made the ultimate sacrifice are celebrated, remembered and thanked. Long ago now, April 25, 1915, it began when Australian and New Zealand ( Anzac) forces landed at dawn on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Landed to suffering, privation, misery, ambush and death. Many young men signed up for adventure, the reality was brutally  different, the contrast captured so well by  Eric Bogel’s, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda – a moving and illuminating song – included as a link below.

Anzac day began during World War I a conflict which spawned a sub, almost full genre of poetry – war poems – none better than Ted Hughes’s Six Young Men. The rules of copyright do not permit it to be posted on Orphaned Islands (Un) poetry’s website. However, a Google search will allow any reader to find it quite quickly – well worth reading.

The Pogues – The band played waltzing matilda – YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZqN1glz4JY

 

 

Brian wondered if his attention had wandered when,
on the first day the speaker told a story
and about 10, in an auditorium of 200,
laughed vigorously.
It happened again the next day,
same story he thought and about 10 began laughing – 
energetically,
then second take joined by 15 or 20.
It happened again on day 3,4 & 5 –
each day for the week-long conference
the same story – not clever, funny or quirky,
and more people laughing.

Brian said they must have chosen well
because it didn’t leak out – not a whiff,
10 selected, and told to laugh loudly on cue.
By week’s end the entire audience laughed with them.

The leader of the leadership conference said
the participants all had a long way to go.