war

WHERE HAVE ALL THE BABY BOOMERS GONE? (Song-In-Progress)

(scroll down for a YouTube video)

Where have all the Boomers gone?
If we made it through childhood
Having our feet x-rayed every September
As we were readied for school
New Buster Brown shoes
And a special box
To zap our growing feet
Life was so sweet
After World War II

Where have all the Boomers gone?
Riding our bikes
Or dancing and singing
To Elvis Presley and the
New rock n’ roll
As DDT sprayed
To keep us safe
From mosquitoes
Oh, life was fun
And hey
Until today
We thought it was okay

Where have all the Boomers gone?
Just one more lab experiment
On our brave families and friends
Fighting in a foreign land
Agent Orange defoliating
It’s ok, it’s safe
So it kills a few Vietnamese
And friendly fire just reminds us
That war is hell
Protection for our Boomer kids?
Teens merely guinea pigs

Where have all the Boomers gone?
Gone in search of the perfect lawn
Using Round-Up to spray away
Healthy dandelions in order to pursue
The American dream
Of a carpet of green

So those of us who made it
Through childhood and the teens
Through peace and war
Those of us left
To fight the war
Of our death
With chemicals pumped
Through our blood
Because there is no cure
For lab-rat mentality

That’s where all the Boomers are going…

 

(c) 2020 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGES: DDT mosquito sprayers, X-ray box for shoe size, agent orange propaganda

https://youtu.be/T1tqtvxG8O4 Pete Seegar YouTube Video

DDT mosquito man

x-ray shoe fitting

AgentOrangeStory_FeaturedImg745x51011-09-17

FIVE HUNDRED YEARS

*Scroll down for a Greensleeves video

All the same
Church still saving souls
Lovers drowning in heart holes
Soldiers marching through peaceful lives
Bankers stashing gold in secret hives

Look at the year 1520
With the exception of Magellan
Plowing through the Pacific Ocean
Our favorite online global encyclopedia
Lists events of the year
WAR WAR WAR
Religious upheaval
WAR WAR WAR
Denmark and Norway
Fighting Sweden
What would Beowulf say?
He gave his life fighting the dragon
And now the boys withdrew the
Welcome wagon
WAR WAR WAR

But okay
Obviously some historian
Shared his/her opinion
Of the most important 1520 events
Surely something more
Will be apparent on another site
So I research
Drinking my first black coffee of the day
Hoping to have something good to say
About how all has changed
How civilization has improved
How the population is no longer
Deranged
First event I see
The artist Raphael dies
On his 37th birthday
Come on researchers!
Historians!
Surely we can be
Positively
Upbeat?

Henry VIII was still toddling around
Maybe he composed Greensleeves?
No literature except religious
Art? Titian painted Venus
(Love Titian’s voluptuous, relatable women!)
Desperate conjecture from me
When all I see is
Nothing, nothing
The word of the year is fear

And remember
Not much fun in the Americas either
Wiki did a countdown of the
Worst years to be alive in history
Yep, 1520
Smallpox gifted to the
Aztec Empire
Thanks, guys

So I give up
Perhaps a search another day
After I’ve consumed mass quantities
Of coffee
Will reveal
A past of
PEACE PEACE PEACE
ART ART ART
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC
POETRY POETRY POETRY

And why am I
Dousing us with this negativity?
Just a reminder
We are the caretakers of
Our universe
We can shape life
Toward happiness and light
Let’s make 2020
The best year to be alive in history…
(c) 2019 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Wiki Commons, Conquistadors bringing smallpox to the Aztec Empire
*YouTube Greensleeves Mozart/Henry VIII https://youtu.be/cfjN2fGHjUY

WOMEN IN WAR

Women in woad*
Shaking undressed breasts
Leading the warriors
Down Irish roads
Banshee-ing through the air
To cause enemies fear
O, to be with you
When war was for defense
Against Romans marching
Through sacred forests

Women in revolt
Beside their men
Stuffing the cannons
Riding like Revere
Founding Mothers
Some disguised as men
As their great-great granddaughters
Four decades later did
In a civil war of economics
O, to be with you
When war was for
Something grander than balls
And women of all races
Did their part
Against Kings of foreign lands
And decades later
With amazing bravery
Against Kings of slavery

Women in partnership
In the War to End All Wars
But no, once again,
In the War to clean up
The economic and territorial mess
A second world war where
Women were winding through alleys
With secrets in their minds
Torn apart by the enemy
No chance of apology
The height of equality
In the torture culture
In hindsight, I would not have wanted
To be with you

On and on
And then I came of age
Married during the Vietnam war
Mom threw out everything
Even my genuine winter pea coat
And summery field jacket
From the Army & Navy store

Here’s an aside:
Why did we protest
That ambiguous conflict
Yet wear war gear?
Sympathetic magic?
Or, worst of all,
A mistaken glamour?
Clad in the garb
Bathing it in words
From Dylan and Ochs
Peace, man
What a joke

Decades later, sadly
Homo sapiens still wants to kill
And despite taking classes
For karate and gun safety
Defense for my sons and me
I’m still wondering
Where have all the flowers gone
Still damning the masters of war
And me, I ain’t marching anymore
Not lifting my voice in protest
It’s for the new young to do

But the desire
The belief
In love and peace
Is still in my aging heart
Still want global good
Still sign those petitions
Still write Congress letters
Now tweeting and emailing
Now posting and texting:
Stop it! Please stop it!

Why have we buried
The end-the-war manifesto?
Why are we all still
Killing the men
Raping the women
Destroying the children
Poisoning the pets
Polluting the water
Burning the books
Cremating the crops
All in the name
The name that does change
Of the jealous god
Let’s build a wall
Around hate and death and war
Because destruction
Is not glamorous at all…
(c) 2019 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Woad 2

*Used this verse in Selfie-Reflections (c) 2016

ME FOR YOU

Who says we’re the “Me” generation?
“Free” definitely
But remember all we did
For the Cosmos?
Some went to war
Some protested same
Learning the game
Of politics
Trying to save
Earth and clean up
Acid Rain
Not easy

Indulgence?
Yes, we were teens
Milestone to adulthood
Looming like a shadowy
Twist of steam
Competing with our
Psychedelic auras
So we indulged
But remember, we didn’t know
That drugs, cigarettes
And even sunshine
Were traps of death

Indulgence?
Oh, the music
Need I say more?
the melody of
Make love not war
Thrumming in our heads
Never to be forgotten
Decades after the first riffs
Of incomparable songs
Echoed along the
Space-time continuum

Me
And you
My lovely cohorts
(No matter our politics)
We made a splendid skydive
Into time
Ticking to the
Rhythm of
Rampaging, riotous
Life
All for the benefit of
You, the future generations…

(c) 2018 clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: MUSHROOM & PEACE UKULELE

A BRIEF HISTORY

Tripartite divisions
Time wounds all healing
Historic time unchanged
Lives still worth stealing

First tree struck by lightning
Branch fell on singed earth
Potential for weapons
Anger now gave birth

Wooden equalizer
Swing it through the air
Smash the enemy’s head
In war, all is fair

Stones are so much stronger
But they still can break
Blazing fires shape bronze
Blood lust now to slake

Iron changes the game
Scissors-paper-rock
Right through the techno age
Add lizards and Spock*

Childish games teach us well
So why work for peace
The world is so crowded
War aids that decrease

Songs of peace resounding
Through harsh centuries
Voices must continue
Profound harmonies

*The Big Bang Theory quantum addition to old game

(C) 2018 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: My peace ukulele

 

 

MANCHESTER SUNSHINE

 

(scroll down for YouTube video)

 

As we Baby Boomers begin our final journey

To who knows where

I wrestle with thoughts

Of how sure we were

That the sun would shine in

And all would be love, peace, music and poetry

 

Youth was a time

When even the place names

Far away

Magically wooed us

Manchester was one

Appearing in a song from “Hair”

Making no sense to me

Then or now

But a city I’d want to someday visit

 

Perhaps I’m so poor at Geography

Because some places exist

In realms uncharted

An alternate Geography

Living and breathing

In the mind

 

Now, Manchester has a new meaning

Sunshine, stardust, all the magic of youth

Blown apart…

 

© 2017 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Manchester Evening News

 

 

YouTube video (song begins at 2:49   https://youtu.be/fhNrqc6yvTU

Lyrics for Let the Sun Shine In http://www.songlyrics.com/hair/let-the-sunshine-in-lyrics/

 

ANOTHER FAIRY TALE MIA

 

Moving away from the city that day

No longer able to tolerate cement suffocating the earth

Never seeing the universe’s nightly planetarium

Hiding out in the country

Ostriching my head

As the daily news counted the dead

Telling myself, I’m safe

But I know now it is the absolute end

Glass face of the moral compass

Shattered

If there was still a molecule of belief

In love and peace

It has been sucked into a

Bottomless vacuum

And nothing

Not a speck

Not an iota

Can ever be seen

No matter how strong the

Scanning electron microscope

Zaps

Seeking an image

Gone, all gone…

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: pollen molecules under scanning electron microscope

IRISH MYTHOLOGY WIP FRAGMENTS*

Women in woad

Shaking undressed breasts

Leading the warriors

Down Irish roads

Banshee-ing through the air

To cause enemies fear

O, to be with you

When war was for defense

Multi-married Maeve

“She Who Intoxicates”

Queen to Eochaid

Demanding a dowry paid

By a trinity of promises:

A husband who would be without

Fear, meanness and jealousy

Maeve, brave survivor of

Rape, war, and her own soul-sucking envy

Powerful woman or perhaps a goddess

Embodying the Sacred Marriage

Guaranteeing fertility

In a viridescent land

*Inspired by the work of Heather Awen

PLEASE SEE HER WORDPRESS SITE:

https://heatherawen.wordpress.com/pen-pals-political-pagan-lgbtq/

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Woad, ekmpowershop3

AN ARM AND A LEG

 

**scroll down for YouTube video**

 

Separated only by a belt

Japanese legendary war

Between the Taira family

As red as Betelgeuse

And the Minamoto family

As {blue-tinged} white as Rigel

Stars still battling

Orion’s belt

No-man’s land

A war

A constellation

A leg and an arm

Emblems of a mythos

Red and white

Like the Japanese flag

Symbolizing

Duty, sacrifice and loyalty

The Hunter a mighty sum

Of his parts

In the eternal aethers…

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Earth-Sky.com

 

YouTube: Orion by Metallica https://youtu.be/mmNpYwMpeJE