Month: April 2026

On Patrol – 4th April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Shared with GloPoWriMo Day 3:
write a poem in which a profession or vocation is described differently than it typically is considered to be.

My poem is my experience of being an administrator of a system that rarely needed any intervention on my behalf, allowing me to do whatever what I wanted during company time, utilising their fast internet access to persue my own hobbies.

Administrator!
I am the ghostly guardian,
the sentinel of processes,
  weaving the idle threads of will.

Interface!
A handshake with new friends
during office hours.
On the clock is off the hook.
  Sick! Sick! Sick!

User!
Addicted to a system
where hours pass into nothingness.
I’m on company time,
  playing pranks behind closed doors.

Firewall!
Access granted
to the garden of shadows,
sketching sunsets on the clock.
  Tick! Tick! Tick!

Escalation!
“Action required”,
yet a mere phantom in the labyrinth.
Gotta justify that position,
  crafting tales while duties lie.

Desk jockey!
With high-speed internet access.
Click! Click! Click!
Paid twice.  Once with money,
  another with time.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Don’t Let This Go To Your Head

Avoid the imperial stain!
Keep yourself simple and sure
Revere the gods and remain
Gracious, affectionate and pure

The Denouement – 3rd April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 12 Comments

From the bed,
all that’s seen is the grey spray of concrete wall
of next door
and a brief triangle of stars
in an oversaturated night sky.

Outside,
just below the bedroom window,
the plastic corrugated roof, rain-worn and sun-beaten,
rolls drips of night condensation
down into the yard.

On the bed,
a whimpering four-year-old shakes
with the news that we are all going to die.
Why you have no father;
why, one day, you too, will cease.

Along the alley,
beyond the open gate,
soldiers run in camouflage
through the garden and onwards.
A mystery that remains
over fifty years later.

On the bed again,
knowing the denouement is still making its way,
the world could still be grey.
Yet somehow, light shines from the horizon,
stitching gold into the four-year-old’s open hand.

A true story, my history, written for GloPoWriMo 2026 Day 2:
write your own poem in which you recount a childhood memory. Try to incorporate a sense of how that experience indicated to you, even then, something about the person you’d grow up to be.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Deceived And Divided

We’re far too easily deceived
When our attention and time are divided
We do the straddle and never succeed
At either of the options provided

We Wanted It All – 1st April 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

We sit in shelters with our eyes averted,
searching for faces among those who remain.
The Occupied Zone, completely deserted
of something that may adequately explain.

We wanted it all and found that we were lost;
we lost it all and wanted that even more.
The missiles with eyes always carry a cost.
…we make our choices when we open the door.

The brothers Rat hold knives to each other’s backs
while talking about life, about what is right.
The brothers Wright sit merrily taking cracks
knocking back a few ’til the end of the night.

Shared for the GloPoWriMo early bird prompt:

write your own poem in which you refer to a specific writer or artist (or work of literature/art) and make a declarative statement about want or desire. Set the poem in a particular, people-filled place, like a restaurant, bus station, museum, school, etc.

The references here will be obscure for most people. The brothers Wright, in this case, are artists Rob and John, of the Canadian Hall of Famers, Nomeansno and the brothers Rat, being their alter-egos in the song Brother Rat. All this is tied together with lyrics mangled from Brother Rat and another of their songs, Lost, words of which discuss shelters and the occupied zone, referencing particular current news events.

This poem is purposefully dystopian, dark and ironic about how people respond to loss and occupation.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

The Colour Of Your Thoughts

What is the feedback on your internal reports?
Do you put yourself fairly in the frame?
Colour your mind with the wrong thoughts
And your life will be dyed the same.