Shared with dVerse MTB: The Roundel
*’The USA has met its enemy and it is the USA’ was taken from a Substack article I was reading but forgot to note the link.
Every Dog – 16th November 2025
Tag: USA
The USA has met its enemy
Maniacs – 8th September 2025
Inspired by this piece by Caitlin Johnstone
Shared with dVerse OLN this week as not many eyes made it to this poem.
Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis
said to be crazy lunatics
They are no longer ‘our’ terrorists
providing cover for our dirty tricks
Those madman megalomaniacs
are a danger when being pressed
slaughtering their own people
when asked to, at ‘our’ behest
Weapons so securely hidden
there’s no chance of being found
the insane are suddenly so smart
their evil intentions are now profound
Hand in hand with the maniacs
Gaddafi, Assad and Hussein
eliminated once the spoils are divided
between the maniacs that remain
Most Hated – 4th September 2025
Solidified as a clogged pipe,
with a hunger never sated;
stubborn, with a fistful of lies,
illegal to be debated;
The wrong colour or wrong type,
in murder, congratulated;
to blacken perfectly clear skies
far from where you are located;
Populations submit to hype
or kept pleasantly sedated;
it’s them or us, all broken ties,
arguing until frustrated;
So the timing has become ripe,
in the fervour you’ve created;
it really comes as no surprise
that you’ve become the most hated.
Tremendous Words – 13th August 2025
The chambers are a-chatter,
full of inarticulate babble
and words that no longer matter
to an uneducated rabble.
Yakking gibberish jabber,
frenzied servants are crowing;
scared that the constant blather
may leave them unknowing.
“Oh say! Can you see
death of freedom and democracy?”
Shared with dVerse Quadrille #229 – jabber
A New Declaration – 4th July 2025
Fifty secessions recommended
for restoration of human rights;
Enslavement to be suspended,
and fifty second-amendment rewrites;
The cowboy boots too small,
the experiment always failing;
There’s freedom for none at all
when the fascists are prevailing;
The right to food not guaranteed
make felons form for looting;
The chaos increasing with speed,
shuttering doors after each shooting;
A tremendous, wonderful thing to see;
a rise and fall so fast;
Selling off the foundations for free,
there’s no way it could ever last;
So fifty secessions needed;
those with virtue, step into the light;
Once the divisions have succeeded,
a second chance to get it right.
Inspired by my own comment on this post at stopdraggingthepanda.
Bombs And Bread – 23rd December 2024
Can you name even one of the dead?
Whilst dropping both bombs and bread
You defend these actions instead
And defiantly nodding your head
But killing kids is not self-defence
Spreading peace through violence
This is no place for indifference
This is no time for your silence
Since when has questioning charred corpses
Been more offensive than actual charred corpses?
This Is Not Disneyland – 3rd December 2024
One person’s Thanksgiving
Is often another’s mourning
We cannot turn back time
To present ourselves a warning
A promise to be kept
And treaties not to be broken
Communities of peace
Only words of love are spoken
Thank and pray to your gods
Whether the land or in the air
The family together
Brings their humanity to bear
Would we turn back the time
To share the freedom with others?
Give up some pumpkin pie
For all our sisters and brothers?
Shared with Reena’s Xploration Challenge #358 – How would you like to celebrate Thanksgiving?
A Box Full Of Cubans – 6th November 2024
Blue and red both arm an expansion
Desperate to maintain and hide inside
Sighs at sixty years of sanction
When a box of darkness opens wide
Despite the embargo, we’ll flip this lid
Set fire to watch the ashes emerge
Behind the masks the ravaged skins did
Weave around the desire to purge
So let’s puff away and soak in glory
The winners crush dust into the floor
The fat man claims to make the story
And blockade away forever more
Written for an AllPoetry.com assonance assignment and using the Poets and Storytellers United prompt – “a box full of darkness”, as well as The Sunday Whirl Wordle #679 – sighs fire flip ravaged blue floor emerge masks ashes soak skin weave
The New Normal – 30th August 2024
The dream is dead, since the sixties
Turned to the seventies, nice and sleazy
Endless wars processed the hippies and pixies
Economic vandals left a peace uneasy
Was it in our name, the forever fight for peace?
Did we ever question what’s going on here?
The grabs for land then returned for lease
The struggle for survival, a punishment severe
Can the decks be cleared with genocide?
The algorithms are running the numbers
There’s no longer a place to hide
And we’re left holding only clunkers
Sign away our lives with disappearing ink
Fingers crossed and handshakes informal
Accustomed to shit we no longer smell the stink
This is the new normal – abnormal
Submitted to Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Uneasy, Weekend Writing Prompt #378 – Severe (though not 18 words – I always forget that there’s a word limit in Sammi’s prompts!), Monday Poetry Prompt: Abnormal and Weekly Prompts Wednesday Challenge – Clunkers. This could also be submitted to dVerse – stormy weather but I already submitted another poem to that.
A Loose Grip On Reality – 30th July 2024
The eagle’s wings spread far
Its shadow cast, deepest black
Blood squeezed out of every inch
Caught in its talons attack
The broadness of its grasp
Concealing the fragility of its grip
Let loose the dogs of war
As their domain starts to slip
Verbal giants become action dwarfs
They must grow or they must decay
The coming end is inevitable
The story always ends this way
USAsian foreign policy, anyone?
22nd Aug 2024 – Submitted to Ragtag Daily Prompt – grip
Today I’m feeling:
On the edge. I felt good at forcing myself up and exercising this morning. Could feel my lazy body enjoying the move and stretch.
The weather today is very English and ordinary (a little warmer than in England of course). Dull, grey and spitting light droplets of rain. The dim ambience is straining my tired eyes and as I pulled up for a couple of hours at House with coffee I suddenly felt tired and run down.
Hopefully the coffee picks me up for what should be a relatively straightforward day of classes today.
Today I’m grateful for:
The bakery shop next door to House where I could pick up ingredients for Amy as her first batch of cookies had failed due to too fine a sugar for the mix.
When I got home and tasted them though, they were the best so far but I could still understand why she wasn’t happy with them.
The best thing about today was:
Sitting on the terrace in the egg chair this evening after dark, with Tigger on my lap and rain tap tap tapping down through the canopy of leaves and flowers growing over the entertainment area. The temperature is finally bearable and I’m even wearing a t-shirt tonight, though I could just as easily not do too.
Anyway, it was only a few minutes but I savoured them immensely.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I was frustrated with Program (and Kwang) in my grade 8 class and asked him to leave after telling him to sit down on about ten different occasions. He tried to convince me that he was going to behave, but unfortunately, he can’t help himself and will just get up and disturb other people.
As I had said I would kick him out if I had to say his name again, I felt obliged to ensure that he left but he refused. So I told the class to just sit and say nothing until he left. He gave it a good go for about five minutes but Kwang eventually convinced him to leave and I carried on teaching and the class was great after that.
Kwang soon got up and asked to go to the bathroom, though and that was the last I saw of her too.
I didn’t let any of this bother me in particular; just wanted to put my foot down. We have fun in my class but there are limits and they need to understand what is acceptable and what is not. It’s a little sad because Program and Kwang are capable students. They just lack maturity and guidance.
I talked with Kru Karn again later but she was just as frustrated with them as all the teachers complain about them to her and she doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t understand why they are still in school as their points in our SchoolBright system have fallen below zero which generally means that they are asked to leave. Kwang’s current score is now -125!
Thankfully, my second class (grade 10s) was much smoother.
Something I learned today?
We have a new teacher teaching English. Her name is Sasha and she’s from Indonesia. She told me that she remembers me from visiting with the exchange program students last year. Her English is good and clear.
It made me wonder who is employing her and how much she is getting paid. I don’t think she speaks Thai, so I’m not sure if she is included as a Thai teacher and will be asked to do all the things that they have to do, too.
Anyway, I told her to ask me anything if she had any questions.
29th Aug 2025 – I’m guessing she must have only been teaching here temporarily as I don’t think I saw her again!
Review your acts, Good and bad.
Today is Nicha’s birthday and I wished her well but I could see that she and her friends may have been expecting something more.
A little later, I popped around to the cafe and bought her back a slice of chocolate cake, for which she was very appreciative and came and gave me a hug.
She’s a good kid. I hope that she finds her place in the world and that it is a good place.
1994ever 