POETRY: CRITIQUE OF POWER
Skewed Parallel and the Intractable Hubristic
Zig zagging a bit
But it feels ok
For you maybe
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line
But that sounds cold
Without living the turns, little is learnt
I've learnt all I need to know
Haste gives rise to a strange thinness
A dilution of encounters
I don't do depth
Losing the richness of the moment
Often it's hard to remember
the significance
The faces and the meaning
That suits me very well
You get there quicker
But lose the love
Not a commodity I recognise
Let's talk before it's too late
© Mark Cole 2025
Time for a New Story
Overturning the bland and the stagnant
Minds have defaulted to vacuous norms
For the same approach
The outcome is already known
Not like Apollo or Everest
Flight or vaccines
They pushed hard at the edges
Redefining the next questions
That's what needed
Vision and action
A dynamic that moves the parameters
New ways to unravel the unsolvable puzzles
Reconsidering the fixed frameworks
Challenging the assumptions
Making new connections
Across historical silos of evidence
Splicing together
The novel and the original
Any previous rules
Redrafted and applied with elan
New thoughts
Fresh answers
World critical
© Mark Cole 2025
The Dissection of Hubris
A slow steady hand
The first cut superficial
Reflects the initial layer of arrogance
The next exposes and displays presumption
A further incision traces and separates disdain
Probing deeper highlights ostentation
Another subtle stroke identifies the necrosis of conceit
At osseous level, the extent of the affliction of pomposity is revealed
It may be too late to save the patient
The lesson never seems to be learned
History lies exhausted from retelling the same story
The surgeon reluctantly gives way to the mortician
Praesis ut prosis ne ut imperes
(Lead in order to serve, not rule)
© Mark Cole 2021
Taking Your Own Medicine
Step up in a marvelous manner
Speak as you need to do
Be kind, be true but hear what you are saying to others
Offer to yourself your wisdom and experience
Test your own pontification
If it's good enough for others
In short, take your own advice and act on it
Advise the adviser
Hypocrisy sucks
So do the decent thing
The only real measure of integrity
© Mark Cole 2021
The Fate of the Proud Fool
Proud Fool sits on top of the pile
Unaware of the obvious subluxation
The mass built on partial truths and blown smoke
A temporary structure by any measure
But Proud Fool doesn't see it
Pockets are stuffed with bias
The head full of imagined importance
Surety of class and position
Tongue spinning linguistic traps
Cozen purposing for power
Stepping on necks
The grubby mantra
Poor Proud Fool
The makeshift can never sustain
Entropy quickened by hubris
Back at sea level sipping from the cup of ridicule
History predicted
Karma delivered.
© Mark Cole 2024