Poetry & Songs, by Charles Carreon

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Thanksgiving Day 2019
by Charles Carreon
11/28/19

Sitting in the parking lot of Whole Foods,
I feel the presence of Bezos
In the relentless industry of this store,
Open when Natural Grocers is closed,
Its tattooed checkers humbly dispensing
bland, dispassionate effort,
As if biding their time till the robots arrive.
On the walk outside the store,
A young man with high-water, cuffed grey cotton pants
Wearing an athletic-style leisure shoe in matching grey,
Completes the modern aesthetic with an unmemorable cap
And a bit of reddish stubble about the mouth.
Intelligence, refinement, and sensitivity
Are characteristic of these natural food buyers,
So also, seriousness, traces of self-absorption,
distance, withdrawal.
The Trader Joe’s crowd is more world-weary, light-hearted,
Athletic, up for a bit of fun.
But is Traders open?
“No” is the answer, I see as the empty lot rolls into view.
I pull through the lot and consider whether
the WalMart Family grocery might have USB-C cable
for less than the arm and leg required by Walgreens.
Arriving there, I see Dollar Store is open and well-attended.
Tucson, oh Tucson, you never disappoint
Seekers of random poverty.

[admin]

Tyrannophilia
by Charles Carreon on the occasion of seeking Doug Ducey's removal from office as Governor of Arizona
7/11/20

Ducey loves a tyrant
He thinks that Trump's inspiring
He's totally untiring
Even though his hero has proven he's a zero
Even though he's losin'
He tries to claim he's winnin'
And everyone around him
Looks like their head is spinnin'
Tyronnophilia!
I just don't feel ya!
The guy's an a-hole!
He's tryin' to kill ya!

Here in the Sonora desert
We get along fine
As long as you don't ask us to toe the line.
Ducey let the President rally at the church,
But now when we need testing
Trump leaves us in the lurch.
Waiting eight hours in a sweltering line,
Everyone can get one,
You can see that just fine.
Restaurants are open,
Unless they're not,
Ice is cold unless Trump said it's hot.
Ducey's gonna follow where the President leads
Over the cliff, to join the rest it seems.
We'll Make America Great!
We won't be late!
See you in a Tulsa for some Pizzagate.

The President ain't leadin'
We know he sure ain't readin'
About the killer virus
If he thinks he can inspire
By sendin' Federal Marshalls
To babysit the generals
Who fought against the Union
To keep the slaves in bondage
Oh yeah, that's awesome trollage!
Tyrannophilia! I just can't feel ya!
The pain of winnin' could just about kill ya!

And here in the Valley of the Sun
Not havin' too much fun.
Air-conditioning the living and the dead
World's worst Covid outbreak, the CDC said.
You know it didn't have to be this way
We could have been safe
If Ducey hadn't been Trump's dutiful tool,
Unconcerned about us or our lives
Currying favor with polite little lies.
Now we're rationing care in our hospitals
Casting lots for the last ventilator
Making caregivers slave in trenches of death
Listen to patients breathe their last breaths,
The weight of bodies layin' on their backs--
Is giving docs and nurses heart attacks.
Phoenix Arizonans breathin' their last
To make a President happy
Who just sits on his ass.
Tyrannophilia! I don't feel ya!
This kind of hero worship's sure to kill ya!

The crazy king has got into killin'
'Cause a real tyrant don't stop at stealin'.
Phoenix Arizona has never been smart,
But you know in a way,
It's a town with a heart.
It's bad enough here without Coronavirus
We hardly had it
Now it's about to bury us!
We're dyin' to feed a crazy man's trip
And Doug Ducey thinks the guy is hip.
Coronavirus! Don't wanna feel ya,
But it's a side effect of TYRANNOPHILIA.

Believing crazy shit is always risky
But stakes this high should make us uneasy.
When people die
You can't be breezy
Sayin' things are great
And the livin' is easy.
But that's what the Crazy King is tweetin'
Now the kids must go to school
Like a great big prayer meetin'
Even though the churches are spreadin' disease
Come sing with Jesus, you'll be safe as you please!
Coronavirus! Don't wanna feel ya,
But it's a side effect of TYRANNOPHILIA.

[admin]

FUN-TITLED
BY CHARLES CARREON
22321

I WAS AMBUSHED, BAMBOOZLED
IN THE WINE
JIMMY’S WINE
AND RAINBOW GAUZES FILLED MY SIGHT
FROM THE HORIZON CAME A HUMMING LIGHT
AND FROM MY HEART THE SOUND OF LOVE.
IT WAS THAT TEA-ROSE GARDEN
OF MY SOUL
OR A TENNIS SHOE IN A TOILET-BOWL
ONE THING IT WASN’T
WAS A CINNAMON ROLL,
WHICH IS ALWAYS NEEDED,
AND PRECEDED IN PAJAMAS,
BY TIBETAN LAMAS.

[admin]

Blues in C-Suite
by Charles Carreon
10/26/22

Everybody wants to be a CEO,
Because then you would be in the know
About when to buy stocks that are sure to rise,
And how to make money while everybody dies.

Oh wouldn’t it be fun to be a CEO?
Keep the rest of ‘em workin’ while you feel the flow,
Have pretty interns who think you’re swell,
And lawyers sending troublemakers straight to hell.

But only special people can be CEOs,
Like Ye, and Elon, and Jeff Bezos,
They want take off for the stratosphere,
Leave us here to work and drink cheap beer.

You know the thing about those CEOs --
They know we’re suckers who create their gold.
Their hired muscle and their wealthy charm
Keeps them the Pigs of this Animal Farm.

People think we need all these CEOs,
But c’mon now, they’re just a bunch of schmoes
Who put their pants on one leg at a time
Not ubermenschen of heroic design.

They take luck for genius,
Mistake greed for vision,
Flatter themselves they can show us the way.
Adding zeros to bank accounts
While the Amazon burns,
Providing for heirs
Who’ll be cursed to survive
In a world where all that was lovely and good
Fell to the CEOs.

[admin]

Librarian's Comment: Charles here attempts an absurdity, which is to write imitations of Shakespeare's Sonnets. The idea is to take the rhythm from Shakespeare's poem, and write a new poem using the same rhythmic structure. It is very difficult, apparently, though not impossible, although some might wish it to be. So here goes.

Shakespeare's Sonnet # 1

From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And tender churl mak’st waste in niggarding:
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.

***

Charles' Imitation of Shakespeare's Sonnet #1

An antique melody brings fireside peace.
The mood that dusk brings comes by and by
Unwinds her from the spindled fleece,
Delivers her into the glimmering sky.
Pearly eye, compounded of mercurial dye,
Sweeps the horizon's expanse with a certain gaze,
Bringing comprehension to the wondering mind,
Certainty now, planted firm, unbetrayed.
Her song thrills the hearer at dawn,
The first to mark the sun's faintest rays,
In this perfect moment, time is gone,
And magics, thought lost, in sylvan bowers play.
Arise now, there is so much to see!
We shall the precious hours adorn with poetry.

[admin]

Shakespeare's Sonnet #2

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,
Thy youth’s proud livery so gazed on now,
Will be a tatter’d weed of small worth held:
Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days;
To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserv’d thy beauty’s use,
If thou couldst answer ‘This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse,’
Proving his beauty by succession thine!
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel’st it cold.

***

Charles' Imitation of Shakespeare's Sonnet #2

When a ducat of decades have erased your pain
And turned your sweetness loose in space,
Your clever clatter will be down the drain,
Your chitter-chatter all in vain.
Reflecting, taking hold of what you had,
The trifling destinations of mercurial fame
Seem not so bad, but in the twinkling of a pan
We flush your ashes down the can.
What swill you swilled,
By what swells you were swollen,
None can tell, for the memory’s flash frozen.
An intimate of furious hours,
We return to the matter of twilight in towers,
The exquisite agony of sunset bowers.

by Charles Carreon
October 15, 2022

[admin]

2022 Arizona the Fruityful
by Charles Carreon
11/14/22
[To be sung to the tune of America the Beautiful]

Well here we are, in desert night,
All wrapped in camouflage,
Crouching by the ballot box
Antifa wants to stuff
With Phony Votes
Yes Phony Votes
From Mexicans and Jews
So patriots must scare them off
So women won’t get loose.

The Cyber Ninjas tried their best,
They counted ‘till they dropped,
But then they gave up like the rest
When the donations stopped.
We tried to stop,
To stop the steal,
But the army of the dead
That rose to vote for Democrats
On brains were amply fed.

We protest here the RINOS who
Would sell our king for scrap
We know they’re really Democrats
Who need their faces slapped.
They sold us out,
They sold us out,
And call it honesty.
We’ll kick their butts
In Quonset huts
Till they act differently.

Oh Arizona, home of nuts,
But don’t you look at me.
I listen to Fox News each night
I research diligently.
I’m MAGA proud
I’m MAGA loud
The Donald is with me!
We’ll stomp your shit and
Spit on it,
Just you wait and see!

America The Beautiful (Lyrics), by Jesus4Life

[admin]

Milky Way
by Charles Carreon
6/16/23



Go easy
No other way to go
But to go
With it –
That’s the way to be,
Surely you can see,
Sun goes down,
Won’t be delayed
Though your hunger
for permanence
Drags at it with invisible hooks,
Backward looks,
The sort of thing
We write in books.
So go, go now
Go with it
Go with the sun
Into sunset
Close the eye of day
Turn sight into night
See the Via Lactea
That divine spray of milk,
Indeed stars are the milk
of all existence,
Forming the bones of planets
and beasts,
Spattered across the heavens
And we, the privileged fools,
Know the span of the
Infinite Sky,
If we dare to believe
The evidence of our instruments,
The calculations of our astronomers,
The midwives of modernity.
So we must go on
Staring at the exploding glory
Of a pageant vast aeons
in the shaping,
at last afoot,
the stellar caravans
trace tracks across the
interstellar void
gesturing with cosmic rays,
gamma, infra, photons,
gravity
Big, exuberant gestures
Lasting millions of years.
They just Go on and on.

Tyrone 6/16/2023

[admin]

X-tians
by Charles Carreon
8/5/2023

They have not spent a minute in prayer,
And wish to play the demon-slayer.

They do not possess a drop of kindness,
And live in moral blindness.

Stumbling in darkness into pitfalls of hate,
Blaming others for the suffering they create.

The Lord they raise above their heads
Would recognize their faces
As those of his accusers,
The ones who wished him dead,
And freed the thief, Barrabas, instead.

[admin]

Republicans
by Charles Carreon
8/12/23

Impunity their goal,
Hypocrisy their tool,
Honesty their foe,
There the fuckers go.