Tag Archives: Black Friday

November verse 18 &19: 29 and 30/11
Using the rhyme words from Vikram Seth's
The Golden Gate, stanza 11.29 and 11.30

As 2020 nears completion,
gurgling swiftly down time's drain,
and leaves behind its vast accretion
of damaged lives, despair, rage, pain,
let's build our souls some insulation,
not give way to desperation,
put our faith in humankind
and the power of the mind.
May politicians' treachery
be no more wrapped in pious sighs
(no way to hide their lyin' eyes),
buffoonery and lechery
in office meet with decent scorn
and find they are no longer borne.

Greenhouse gas accumulation
challenges the world's combined
resourcefulness. The fermentation
of bullshit would leave us resigned
to dying off without compunction,
but we can overcome disjunction.
The clock is nearing 12 at night
but tunnel's end shows flicking light:
I'll join a crowd, not be a stranger,
join hands, write letters, march, and then
do it again, again, again.
It's hard to face how real the danger,
feel climate grief, but then the lust
for life kicks in. In science I trust.

November verse 17: Homonyms

A crash and panic in Vienna.
Eyemouth, many fishers died.
Women beaten at a demo.
Perfect storm Lake Erie-side.
King Zog vanquished by Il Duce.
Allied planes shot down in Norway.
Flood, tornado, bombs and fire,
scandals, massacres – all dire,
all sharing in this nomenclature.
Why choose this term to sell us stuff?
Why don't we shout, Enough's enough!
Why take it on as second nature?
What next, merchant brotherhood?
Yes, why not call this Friday good?

When I started writing this, I had the Black Friday bushfires in Victoria in mind. But a quick look at Wikipedia made me realise that Black Fridays are legion. Here’s the link if you want to know more.

Also: if anyone knows the James McAuley poem whose last line is echoed by by my last line here, please tell me its title and where I can find it. [Added later: It wasn’t James McAuley at all, but TS Eliot, the last line of Part 4 of East Coker in Four Quartets: ‘Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.’]