by Carey Lenehan
Goodbye then, Steve Jobs,
Intemperate genius,
misunderstood visionary, magician,
unqualified brat.
You shaped our world with
exquisite imagination,
created landscapes of delight
for the children
you knew we always stayed.
That bicycle in my head
grew booster rockets and took off
years ago,
thanks to you,
and I’ll never forget how
I sat before that old Mackintosh
for the very first time at school,
breathless with excitement, fingers poised
knowing, somehow,
that I was about to enter
the rabbit hole
and never look back
Thanks for the joy you gave a world
so used to invention for distruction
whereas you
brought us invention
for pure joy,
tools with elegance
stunning innovation,
technology that was fun,
ripping up the military ideal
that computers
were only good for war.
You brought connectivity
to art,
and teched up work until our toil
became a pleasure.
Defied, disregarded, evicted
by money men too foolish to see
that computing
was about magic
not numbers
Were you the only one
who really got that?
So, farewell then, old friend,
You did so much more
than simply touch
our monotone, earthbound lives
with your galactic, iridescent foresight,
You upgraded history
and helped us capture it in digital hi-def.
You built a whole new world
with new words
and new possibilities
taking us in Star Trek directions
with your shiny new toys
for big people.
Be sure,
that you are not forgotten
but live in every little apple
alight on a lap,
or singing in a hand,
gifts you gave the world,
that keep you looping here
eternally,
forever hungry, forever foolish
RIP Steve Jobs 1955-2011
Keep your i-phone handy. We may need to call you.
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October 6, 2011. Tags: Apple, computing, poetry, Steve Jobs, technology, writing. current events, life, poetry, writing. .
I love you best when you sleep,
when your teenage rancour is stemmed,
when the assumed poses of your evolution fall away
and you are the same as you always were,
baby faced as on that very first day,
ageless, perfect, silent.
When you sleep, all cries of need are ceased,
no longer filling my ears or hurting my heart.
The accusations of my failure
no longer clang upon my guilty conscience.
The heat of your anger is doused upon a dewy sweat
and once again you are just a sleeping child.
When you sleep, I can be your mother, not your opponent
I can cover your helplessness with love and protection,
keep an eye out for marauders,
listen to the sweet sonata of your steady breathing
and know you are alive, safe, loved,
but most of all, perfectly silent.
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June 21, 2011. Tags: children, family, life, love, parenting, poetry, teenagers, writing. children, family, life, poetry, Uncategorized, writing. .
America Gets Crazy Flu
by Carey Lenehan
When did America lose its mind?
I’m sorry, I must have missed it.
Somewhere between the triumph of Omaha Beach
and the disaster of Beverley Hills 90210
Somewhere between Steve McQueen’s Great Escape
and OJ Simpson’s fall from grace,
juxtaposed between John Wayne’s True Grit
and Arnie’s inconstant Terminator,
the great US of A,
caught the Crazy Flu,
and like any virus
it’s spreading…
When did balance and intelligence flee US shores,
like rats of reason leaving behind
proud H.A.T.R.I.O.T.S and R.A.C.I.S.T.S,
who would rather see the suffering masses
dying unfed, labelling them wasters and parasites
than pay a penny of their hard won dollars
to care for them,
yet still have the balls
to call themselves civilised ‘Christians’?
Somewhere between Hiroshima and Hurricane Katrina,
y’all became,
fearful children clinging to the skirts of sanity
comforted only
by exponentially corruptive politics of spin
and sucky beliefs.
When did common sense escape American minds
and run screaming for cover?
Somewhere between Vietnam and 9/11 perhaps,
all good reason set sail on its Mayflower
in search of greener pastures and purpler mountains
leaving in its place, a sacriligeous vacuum filled
with bigotry, selfishness and senseless anger.
Where once was a shining light,
now there exists a morass of fevered minds
fuelled, mostly, by the desire for revenge
at any cost….
offering the world little more to see
than a million incompatible viewpoints,
each more bonkers
than the last.
I must have looked away just a little too long
for when I looked back across the pond
that Land of the Free I was raised to respect,
because, you know, you helped us win the War…
had become chained and bound,
in the name of Liberty, and the pursuit
of a bogus War on Terror.
Now it is you who are imprisoned by radicalism
trapped in a cage of greed and selfish ignorance,
too long indoctrinated by wackos,
swaying political fashion, religious fanaticism and
the unwitting desire to idolise the famous
no matter how foolish or frivolous
Paris Hilton might be…
Where did my America go?
That one which once fought for freedom
and now fights wars for greed and tyranny,
killing women and children for being un-American,
bringing with brutality,
their strange democracy
to a world that doesn’t really want
or (quite honestly) need what you have to offer,
where US troops, piss on prisoners of war
and deny them
basic human rights,
considering them ‘less than human’.
Tell me, what is less human
than that?
How did the Yanks, with their big ol’ Chieftan tanks
get so lost in the wilderness,
out there in the sand storms of other deserts?
Trading oil and poppies
that don’t belong to them,
telling everyone they know best
when they no longer seem to know,
anything much at all,
least of all
which side is right or wrong,
or even understand
that Evolution is not a dirty word
because their own D-Evolution has been
too long allowed?
What happened to the Home of the Brave
because, Say, all I see
are frightened sheeple of low esteem
always looking for the quick fix,
like plastic surgery for the personality
not realising, that the world does not
trust them to be in charge,
anymore?
Now the rational voices of the sane and reasoned
are drowned by the banshee wail
of 100 million crazies, all with a platform
to stand on,
and I can only ask
what the hell are they teaching them
in school?
Paranoia, fear, anger, jealousy and hatred,
these are the things I see when I look
at the land where free speech became
a club to batter your enemies
and a reason to get you locked up
without charge,
indefinitely…
where human rights are less important
than lawyers,
where surveillance means
the eradication of trust…
Yup, American Crazy Flu. It’s a killer…
and like any virus,
it’s spreading….
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September 11, 2009. Tags: Barack Obama, corruption, economy, Education, Flu, government, Healthcare, news, Obama, politics, President, Speech, Swine Flu, USA, writing. children, current events, economy, news, political poetry, political writing, politics, Uncategorized, writing. .
