Punk Rock Poetry Corner: Bill & Ted's (Not So Excellent) Adjunct Adventure

 

<Movie poster: Wikipedia.com>

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Ran aground: Hit the speed bump

    of social inequity...

The mushroom cloud of student debt,

Service McJobs for subzero wages,

    (Future Self asks):

"How's it going, Bill 'n' Ted Esquire?"

<Bill>
"Not so good, dudes.

We're either temps.
Or adjuncts!"

 
<Future Self>
"Whoa, dudes, no way!"

<Ted>
"Way! No health insurance,

No retirement, no vaaa-caaayyy days...

    Nothin'! And we can get cut loose.
    Any time."

                <Future Self>

            "Don't say anything to Wayne.

            He still thinks he'll get

            To be a rock star.

        And the hair net's only temporary."

<Bill>
It wasn't this way,

Of course, for all us

wiseass slacker kids,

& the big screen dreams

we spent

so much time & money

chasin' around:

<Ted>

Life back then

Felt like

Some kind of crazy quilt

All-nighter @ Empire Records,

& anything felt possible.

<Bill>

You could bash till dawn,

Show up in whatever condition

you'd somehow

gotten yourself into,

<Ted>
& nobody bothered

to look at you sideways,

Give you the onceover,

& you always

had enough left over,

<Future Self>

For the next beer,

For the next Big Gulp,

The next stash,

The next smoke,

The next show,

The next big date...

Whatever. Nowadays?

Don't even bother. 

<"Boomer Retirement Card,"
Take I/The Reckoner>

<Ted>

The hair net & hair clip

Remain on somebody or other's

accessories list

...Along w/the uniform:
Red apron, blue apron, green apron,

Take your pick!

<Bill>
The friendly

Neighborhood record store's

long gone.

Those Wyld Stallynz

Never got 

A moment to roam.

<Ted>

The rock star dreams

Wound up permanently frozen,

on hold: 

<Future Self>

But remember, sucker, 

Nobody promised you

...That life would ever get better.

<Bill>

So bounces the last IOU

From the Boomers,

Who shuffled the cards

<Ted>

& marked up the deck 

of this particular

cardboard cutout empire.

<The Reckoner>

<"Boomer Retirement Card,"
Take II/The Reckoner>

Links To Go
(Read The Headline, Go Figure):
Older Americans Won The Pandemic:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/older-boomers-won-pandemic-becoming-165242402.html

Punk Rock Poetry Corner: Haikus 2009 (By Don Hargraves)

<Haikus 2009>

Goodbye to the year

    that never should have become

        the year we went through:

The Stock Market Dropped

    and a woman's life turned into

        noisy agony

    and is now held together

        by Valium Eucharists

Jobs came and jobs left.

    I held onto mine closely

        As millions lost theirs…

    My wages didn't move down

        For which I am SO grateful…

Promises were made

    which in the end were better

        left aside broken

    but pride forces shit along

        that should never have been done.

Deaths came fast and thick

    as the year came to an end;

        ugliness followed:

    One came with middle fingers

        another: bad memories.

And through all of it

    a striving that seemed finished

        only to cut off:

    I watched the rich hoard like hell

        and the poor were forced to pay

So I say goodbye

    to a year that should never

        be mentioned again...

                    --Don Hargraves

Punk Rock Poetry Corner: At One Time...

Ana Vujic: "Birth School Work Death"

(Mixed media on wood, private collection, 2014)
http://www.gallery-daeppen.com/_artists/ana_vujic/index.php

At One Time...

<Birth>

At one time...you could go shopping for fun, spend hours at the mall, and still have money left over when you were done.

At one time...two parents didn't sweat like dogs...just to afford
all those wonderful toys at the mall.

At one time...families could afford two weeks' vacation a year,
stay in a hotel each night, and enjoy some meals out.

At one time...you could actually buy groceries,

and not feel like you needed a bank loan.

At one time...you could visit long-distance relatives and friends
a couple of times a year (even on weekends)...
...and afford the gas to get there.

At one time...people got involved in what happened around them.
Now, they just don't seem to care,
no matter how crazy it gets.

<School>

At one time...civics courses were standard K-12 fare.  Today, they're drowned out by the drumbeat of standardized tests.

At one time...you had to know what the Constitution and

the Bill of Rights said (and they also taught you

something about early American history).

At one time...people could identify Vietnam

or Norway on a map without hesitation.

At one time...schools looked out for every student's needs,

and didn't try to make everybody the same.

At one time...you could afford the promises of college...when

the regimes in charge offered more grants than loans.

<Work>

At one time...people stayed in the same place, and weren't forced
to move every few years, just to make a living.

At one time...even a minimum wage office job (boring as it was)
offered some sort of hedge against moving every few years
(until those jobs eventually dried up).

At one time...banks competed for customers' loyalties,
based on interest rates. Today, they slap fees
on every ounce of your slavery.

At one time...businesses were smaller, and didn't draw big red lines
through the communities they pretended to serve.

At one time...if people were practical and frugal,
they put something away for a rainy day.

At one time...many people lived on farms
and felt rewarded for the fruits of their labors.

<Death>

At one time...we would never have questioned
if “Solyent Green” felt like a documentary.

At one time...working till you dropped sounded like something 

out of a bad science fiction novel, 

or a cheesy '70s movie.

Today, life is the stuff

of a cheesy, bad science fiction movie.

Logan never stops running,

always in motion -- 

alive and well for now,

but whether he sees 31

remains ripe for speculation.

--The Reckoner & The Squawker

Punk Rock Poetry Corner: Banana Nation

[cite for picture]

Banana Nation 

America can't keep the lights on anymore

A million applicants for 50,000 jobs at McDonalds!

A dying economy, failing infrastructure

Open the door

Look at Brazil

There is the core of the future

Wake up it's morning

The living room is trashed

The dream is over

America is out of cash

Yet another useless war to add

To the trillions already spent overseas

When bridges collapse here

Every time there is a freeze

We have a dying way of life

Squashed between limousine liberals

And tough on crime conservatives

Who keep voting on both sides

For the 535 of inept Barney Fife's

Who are more busy keeping the corporations

Happy and their own pockets filled

While the American dream is killed

Young people say goodbye to your own home

Hospitals, hobbies, the ability to roam

Free time, vacations and security

You'll be baited and switched

As you make $6-7 dollars an hour now worth $2

At a job you spent 4 years and $50-60,000 to get

Talk about being robbed

You're not the only one buried under a loan

Already knocked out by Sylvester Stallone

No jobs, No jobs, begging for a handout

Or how about just building a life

No, plan for more strife!

More cuts, bennies, and helps for the robber barons

While doing what's right seems to mean nothing anymore!
---The Squawker

Punk Rock Poetry Corner: The People's Haikus #3: Shootout At The Dream Factory

<TAKE I: THE INDUSTRY>

Note to authors: want

Royalties? Go see the queen

of England, not me.

Celebrity book
deals reign supreme: it's a small world,

dude, who needs you?

First novel doesn't
sell? Better luck next time, kid.
Show us your platform!

Your cupboard feeling

cold & clammy? Better talk with

my assistant, friend:

Hey, I'm your agent!
I meant what I said (at the

time that I said it).

 

<TAKE II: THE TALENT>

"Wait a minute," I

demand, "not so fast...sure, cream

rises. So does crap."

On the horizon,

I smell puffs of mutiny,

DIY cries ringing free

Spreading our stories

via the blog or handheld

reader (making us 

all town criers (no

longer selling works for hire,

always & forever):

this deal sounds better:

high time for a shootout at

...the dream factory.

<TAKE III: THE OUTCOME>

So where's the grapeshot?

The whiff of gunpowder has

never smelled sweeter

than it does here &

so, forgive me, if I want

the taste in my mouth

to linger just a

little bit longer, since cream

rises (remember)?

                          <The Reckoner>

Punk Rock Poetry Corner: Union Haiku (Guest Post: Don Hargraves)

Union Haiku

Sitting in class
the last day of worker training
Management man speaks.

Management man says:
"I'm neither for or against
the teamster union,

"But remember this:
The union doesn't pay you,
the company does."

- - - - - - - - - -

Your statement is true
but if it were up to you
you would pay much less

Our wages would drop
And benefits disappear
As your profits rise

And the rules would shift
as management whim becomes
workfloor policy.

The union makes you
deal with us employees
as equals, with rights.

The Union makes you
pay a decent wage for work
that we do for you.

The union makes you
give us benefits you would
not give otherwise.

The union makes you
comply with OSHA, they make
you think of safety.

- - - - - - - - - -

Management man, you
have the company's backing
and all it entails:

Would we work for you
were it not for the money
you put in our hands?

Lawyers work for you,
you hire your own police
to watch over us

Meanwhile governments
beg for you to pick their land
to place factories.

Pointing guns at us,
they give money and promise
worker slavery

for the benefits
(however iffy) of your
presence on their land.

- - - - - - - - - -

Without the union
workers must view each other
as enemies

Hiding under you
as you use us as your tools
to keep your power

Burning ourselves out
only to be thrown away
when we're all used up.

- - - - - - - - - -

So I'll stay union
And stand alongside the workers,
fighting with them

For a living wage,
benefits that protects us
from life's vagaries

And to enjoy friendships
and pleasures not conditioned
by our working life.

Don Hargraves

Finished May 10, 1999
Rewritten July 29, 2002

Punk Rock Poetry Corner: The People's Haikus #2: (For Freelancers & Journalists)

Newspapers folding
At dizzying speeds: have empire,
must now work for food.

I spent 20 years
reheating meals, losing sleep:
I lost my job anyway.

Fend for yourself now
Amid the wreckage: no prospects,
hell...no benefits.

Dear Freelancer: your

pay is due for an increase (when

Hell freezes over).

What is the essence

of a correspondent?

Rhymes with..."despondent."

Shareholders swarm

like locusts, leaving nothing

but dreams in pieces.

As newsrooms topple

Like dominoes nationwide,

one thought has struck me:

Here is our downfall,

In 25 words or less...we

missed so many hints.

• The Reckoner

Punk Rock Poetry Corner: The People's Haikus

Congressman Scrooge: run

that "Surplus Population 

Joke" by me once more.

Scrooge replies: people

suck up to you around here...

God, I love this place!

Great Elevator

Speech...you're over 40?

We hired someone else.

Take a pay cut, grin

through your boss's jokes..ah, Stockholm

Syndrome in Action.

Executive Blues

skimming paychecks is hard work...

tax exile awaits.

A conspiracy

of stocks speaks louder than guns

drop the greenmail bombs.

Your pension blows up,

you won't work till you drop?

only when pigs fly.

My dreams ran aground:

this scratch off ticket netted

me...only 5 bucks.

Lobbying: my way 

of saying..."It's return

on investment time."

The poor grow poorer,

because...you cannot feast on 

air and promises.

Class warfare, you say?

true enough: why rock your boat

when I can sink it?

Hey Mr. Banker:

Remember...As long as I breathe,

my hope burns bright!

-----The Reckoner