.
Support the Current Thing
Don’t ponder on the horrors of our age.
Don’t thumb through all those dusty history tomes.
Don’t dally in the dazzle of a sage.
Don’t chew on clues and muse like Sherlock Holmes.
Don’t scrutinize the motives in Ukraine.
Don’t grapple with the rabble on the jab.
Don’t map the track of every gravy train.
Don’t balk at blunders in a bio lab.
Don’t heed misleading warnings from a seer.
Don’t let a spark of acumen ignite.
Don’t scramble to the rambling egghead sphere.
Don’t let your flock of feckless dreams take flight.
Don’t undermine the gift of gender shift.
Don’t mention sex is fixed by DNA.
Don’t hex the checks and vex the dons that drift
From facts – they know that honesty won’t pay.
Don’t seek. Don’t ask. Don’t speak—do not opine.
Don’t question whether info’s false or fair.
Don’t probe the focus of the party line.
Don’t doubt the devil’s lair is lined with care.
Abort all thought. Support the current thing.
Don’t leak the trick beneath the lick of gloss.
Don’t deify the truth. Don’t let it ring—
We’ll nullify and nail it to the cross.
.
.
Susan Jarvis Bryant has poetry published on Lighten Up Online, Snakeskin, Light, Sparks of Calliope, and Expansive Poetry Online. She also has poetry published in TRINACRIA, Beth Houston’s Extreme Formal Poems anthology, and in Openings (anthologies of poems by Open University Poets in the UK). Susan is the winner of the 2020 International SCP Poetry Competition, and has been nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize.
Brilliant and witty poem
Thank you very much, Michael.
If you don’t know what the current thing is… don’t worry, the worldwide mockingbird media will let you know:
https://twitter.com/MythinformedMKE/status/1514766869810479115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1514766869810479115%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fgeneraldispatch.whatfinger.com%2Fwhen-i-first-saw-this-it-scared-the-hell-out-of-me-thought-we-were-already-a-dictatorship%2F
IF you disagree with even a tiny part of the current narrative… YOU are dangerous for democracy and MUST be silenced.
This poem has sharp angles and witty turns. It also has depth of meaning and excellent points. So often a poem skims along the surface and never reaches the substance. Your poems don’t.
Dearest Sally, you have the knack of reading between the lines and getting to the very core of my message, and for that I am wholly grateful. We are sisters in art and in life! Thank you.
Great poem and great advice, Susan, thank you. I’ll print this out and keep it with me at all times, so I can make sure I don’t get distracted by misinformation while I focus on virtue-signaling my unwavering support for the current thing. I have noticed that sometimes it can be a little confusing trying to support the current thing, especially when the talking points of today’s current thing are diametrically opposed to the talking points of yesterday’s current thing, as can sometimes happen in this fast-paced world we live in. Your poem should help keep me on the straight and narrow of the one and only daily current thing.
Yael, you tap into today’s idiocy eloquently and perfectly. Oh, to support the current thing… it brings with it a pat on the back on social media and popularity among those who rely upon the mockingbird media for their moral values. I hope you appreciate the poem below. It epitomizes the current mindset… I couldn’t resist:
Cutting Edge
I back the current universal thing.
I track the mainstream topic of the day.
I swallow spicy soundbites tossed my way.
I wallow in each bitter Twitter fray.
I know my voguish views will always win –
I back the current universal thing.
I spout the latest imbecilic stuff.
I flout the rules of every sane debate.
All rationale is stale and out of date.
The oblique clique is chic and holds more weight –
In circles where it’s de rigueur to bluff
I spout the latest imbecilic stuff.
I wear my diamond heart upon my sleeve –
Designer schmooze in coos of pseudo care
In fetching tones that make the world aware
My outlook is as stylish as my hair.
The current thing is all that I’ll believe –
I wear my diamond heart upon my sleeve.
Thank you so much for the additional pointers Susan! I can see where this is going to help me virtue-signal much more effectively and efficiently, once I learn how to incorporate all your techniques into my virtue-signalling regimen. Especially the hair-style advice is much appreciated. I’m going to find out who does Designer schmooze in coos of pseudo care here in Turtletown, for the next time I get my hair done, so it matches my outlook perfectly every day.
Yael, Designer-schmooze-in-coos-of-pseudo-care hair is all the rage these days, it’s a virtue-signaler’s must. You’re gonna rock Turtletown!
Once again, Susan Bryant hits the bullseye dead center. Her poem is an exact portrayal of the robotic, lockstep thinking that governs millions of humanoid semi-androids in our society.
And as for the illustration, this time Evan Mantyk has picked one that is not only appropriate, but also damned scary.
Joe, you are exactly right on the ‘robotic, lockstep thinking’ front… that’s the precise image I was trying to portray in my poem. Thank you.
I found “Don’t hex the checks and vex the dons that drift” to be quite a tongue-twister. Your alliteration’s fantastic. What’s your secret? Is there perchance a Muse whispering in your ear? Kudos!
Cheryl, my Muse never whispers, she shouts, and I indulge her every whim… I’m thrilled she got it right on this one. Thank you!
Susan, since you have already posted a second poem on the thread, please allow me to continue with the one I thought of before I finished the first stanza of your sizzling satire that turns deadly serious at its end. Different times, different tone, but the following similar message is not out of date.
STAY FIRM
Eustache Deschamps (1346-1406)
Let them pass, these times unblest;
Imagine golden ages.
The man who stills his rages
Ever stands the sturdiest.
No furor that rampages
Strikes him down by fear oppressed,
But firm as ancient sages
He upholds traditions best.
When the epochs are assessed,
Brief years yield better stages
Where heaven soon assuages
Tribulation bitterest.
Let them pass, these times unblest.
One’s cross his merit gauges;
Words severe his temper test;
Calm strength success presages.
To prevail, be self-possessed,
Live your life with cheerful zest,
And gladly earn God’s wages,
For thus one disengages
Yearnings from this world distressed.
Let them pass, these times unblest.
The translation is mine, from “Laissiez ce mal temps aler” in the author’s Oeuvres Completes (1884), page 225. He who lived under a mad king, with four princely uncles fighting for control of the kingdom, and foreign enemies in possession of a large portion of it, would nonetheless wish us a blessed Good Friday.
Margaret, what a privilege it is to read your wonderful translation of this engaging poem with a marvelous message. This certainly proves that the only constant in a troubled world is God. I shall turn to this poem to bring peace and perspective when I’m perplexed. Thank you very much indeed.
by the way, Susan, whose drawing is it? I don’t see a signature.
On the 1st of March 2022, the Instagram account “fakenewsnetwork” used the catchphrase, “I support the Current Thing” within a crowd of NPC Wojaks to represent groupthink, earning roughly 3,700 likes in 13 days. That is the meme that Evan used above, Sally.
Many thanks for the background on the phrase, Mike. I must have missed all this while dealing with the many things which were coming apart here. Those current things have given me a good trouncing of late.
Love Susan’s poem, and totally agree with the meaniing of the drawing. But still, I would like to know — who among us has an added talent and made the actual work?
Can you tell me?
Sally, many memes are impossible to track back to the actual artist. Many of those who make and tweak memes prefer to remain anonymous because the best meme artists do not support the Current Thing and are likely to be cancelled.
Apparently, the meme above was assembled from other memes by “fakenewsnetwork.“
https://ifunny.co/tags/afakenewsnwork
That’s as close as I can get.
Susan, what a clever idea to write a don’t poem! You are, of course, right on the mark. Expressing a ‘free’ opinion which goes against the group narrative is like swimming against the tide. Who would ever have thought that thinking could be branded undemocratic?
David, you are absolutely spot on with your observation – thank you very much. Let’s hope it makes a lauded comeback soon!
This poem definitely makes you think.
From my observations, opposition to the current thing, even if ‘the current thing’ is something sensible like wearing a mask to stop infecting people with a deadly virus, is a knee jerk reaction, fueled by conspiracy theorists like that Alex Jones guy and largely linked to political affiliation rather than good sense these days.
In fact, the opposition to the current thing, then, ironically, actually becomes ‘the current thing’, based on no better reasoning than ones friends, spouses, relatives, golfing buddies etc. have been sucked in by misinformation.
This is just my personal observation.
Paul, this isn’t complicated. Did you watch the video? Democracy means rule by the people. The people are your “friends, spouses, relatives, golfing buddies” not the government funded “experts.”
Each human being exercises sovereignty over himself. That means you decide. The Current Thing is always what the government pushes and never the pushback.
Don’t think for yourself… it is dangerous.
“Expressing a ‘free’ opinion which goes against the group narrative is like swimming against the tide. Who would ever have thought that thinking could be branded undemocratic?”
Paul, you are actually experiencing democracy now. Everyone gets to have an opinion and everyone gets to express their opinion. It is called “the marketplace of ideas.”
It’s fun, isn’t it?
“The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.” – Email from Dr. Fauci to Secretary Sylvia Burwell, February 2020.
Fauci knows the science never changed, just the politics.
Paul, I’m glad the poem has made you think, although, I feel you may have missed my message.
The narrative voice is that of the powers that be (the ones who are in the position to skew and nullify immutable truths). The only power that can shut truth down and annul it is the government and those who are financially affiliated with the government. Once the media, any media platform, scientist, business etc. has financial ties with the government, the information received from that source is unreliable. It has more to do with money that it does genuine care. I’m sure you’ve heard Lord Acton’s warning; ‘Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ Politicians aren’t angels. They’re not saints. They’re not healers. They’re not peacekeepers. Politicians make an awful lot of money from vaccines, war, windfarms, businesses in Ukraine and China etc.… and they shouldn’t. Why? Because that is precisely why they push the ‘current thing’… it’s in their interest, not ours. I would rather listen to independent views than government funded views for that precise purpose… they have no agenda, there is no ‘current thing’ to push. Independent thinking is the enemy of the government and all those with financial ties to the government. Independent thinking is as far from the ‘current thing’ as you can get. Independent thinking is honest, which brings me to this thought-provoking quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower; ‘May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion’.
Thank you for dropping by with your thoughts… may they remain free and sane.
If anyone thinks that wearing some stupid mask is going to prevent the spread of virus, he’ll very likely also think that a chain-link fence will keep out flies.
Wearing a mask is purely a political statement and a fashion statement. It says “I’m a good little left-liberal progressive, and I’m a member of the elite intellectual class in modern society.”
A great many absurd practices of our semi-android population are based on these two social-climbing motives.
“Expressing a ‘free’ opinion which goes against the group narrative is like swimming against the tide. Who would ever have thought that thinking could be branded undemocratic?”
Thank you for dropping by with your comments.
If you haven’t noticed, Joseph, the weave of a mask doesn’t leave gaps the size of a chain link fence. It’s not rocket science.
You apparently have no idea of the size of a virus particle.
Thank you for once again demonstrating that there isn’t a left-liberal opinion that you won’t jump up reflexively to support, without any actual thinking.
“The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.” – Email from Dr. Fauci to Secretary Sylvia Burwell, February 2020.
Fauci knows the science never changed, just the politics.
Thanks, Ms. Bryant, for another Susanism-filled message poem. “Don’t doubt the devil’s lair is lined with care.” Love it! I think I’ll support a current thing today by going out and buying some very ripped up yet of course highly fashionable blue jeans.
Russel, how could I have missed this little gem of a comment. I love the ‘Susanism-filled message poem’ observation, and the line on the devil’s lair you picked out happens to be my favorite. It says so much about what’s happening to us today… it’s as far from care as I can possibly imagine. Russel, I bet you rock those ripped blue jeans… I hope you got them in a sale! 🙂
Susan, another triumph! Can such a serious subject be the source of a fun poem? You’ve proven it can — there’s an almost peculiar, sardonic schadenfreude in watching members of the greatest civilization on Earth abandon their ability to think rationally and critically. Your droning list of “don’ts” is intentionally stupefying — even zombifying. And that just about says what the state of the world is now, doesn’t it?
Despite the discouraging truth behind your poem, I hope you and Mike have a very Happy Easter!
Brian, thank you very much for your perspicacious comment. I would like to wish you a very Happy Easter too! The only thing that keeps me going during these sad and sorry times is that our lives still have purpose, there is a kingdom greater than the one we have built here on earth, and that the poor and twisted justice the elite claim to serve us is nothing compared to God’s justice.
Susan,
Being a former musician, I’m inevitably reminded of Hammerstein’s lyric for “People will say we’re in love.” Although he was a resourceful chap, I doubt Oscar could have summoned anything as weighty and urgent as you are here.
It also brings to mind Jesus’ references to “this generation.” Which generation was that, Lord? (The current one may take the prize.)
Julian, your comments are always a delight and I love this one. A very Happy Easter to you! I am particularly appreciative of your musical background and discerning ear, such an advantage when it comes to appreciating the musicality of poetry. Thank you!
“There’s simply no significant difference attributable to mask mandates”
SOURCE: (https://ianmsc.substack.com/p/every-comparison-shows-masks-are)
Hundreds of studies done before Covid demonstrate the uselessness of masks against viruses.
Now that the government is paying for the studies, the masks suddenly become lifesavers. Can we really be so easily fooled?
Thank you, Mike. Let’s hope all those insisting upon our children wearing masks will see the light. To my mind, this is child abuse. Covid-19 poses no danger to children and there’s a 99.7% recovery rate for everyone else. The psychological and physical damage long-term wearing of masks poses is indefensible.