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Home Poetry Culture

‘Living in a Purple Wood’ by Roy E. Peterson

May 5, 2021
in Culture, Humor, Poetry
A A
16

..

Whoever said that change is good
Is living in a purple wood
Behind a tree behind a bough;
A purple horse and purple cow,
For progress is a purple haze
Confusing nights; confounding days.

Our education system’s shot.
No morals teach for we forgot
To Pledge Allegiance, say a prayer;
Chastise the kid with purple hair,
For progress makes a vain demand.
No longer may we reprimand.

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Progress in our community
Means druggies have immunity.
Whoever thought that might be good
Is living in a purple wood,
For progress is a backward leap
Into the waters of the deep.

The government with progress came,
Said you can’t call someone a name.
Diversity is such a bitch
We have to sacrifice the rich,
For progress is a purple whore,
That hides behind a purple door.

The White House is a purple cage
Where progress has become the rage.
A Socialist President
Is now the current resident.
Whoever thought that would be good
Is living in a purple wood.

Advances in technology
Deleted our autonomy.
While medicine is doing fine
Society is drunk on wine,
For progress is a purple bell
That’s ringing at the gates of hell.

.

.

LTC Roy E. Peterson is a writer, retired U.S. Army Military Intelligence Officer, Foreign Area Officer, and Foreign Commercial Officer who currently resides in Texas.

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Comments 16

  1. Joe Tessitore says:
    4 years ago

    This is an excellent read and an incisive take on where we are.
    To be read again and again.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson says:
      4 years ago

      Great encouragement, Joe! I thank you!

      Reply
  2. Susan Jarvis Bryant says:
    4 years ago

    Roy, I love this. It’s creative, informative and hits the purple nail on the head with its spot-on message. It’s also inspirational… I simply couldn’t resist:

    … And when they see the purple sheep,
    The true-blue hearts begins to weep
    For saps who kneel where souls once stood
    In the swampy purple wood.

    The only problem is, the picture of the purple hair… I want mine dyed and styled exactly the same way!!

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson says:
      4 years ago

      HaHa, Susan! I did not select the picture. I thought it would be a purple wood one. You might look great in purple!

      Reply
  3. C.B. Anderson says:
    4 years ago

    Tell us how you really feel, Roy. These verses are sharp and timely — I feel your rage, and I think my face is turning purple.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson says:
      4 years ago

      Oh, C.B. I never have rage. Anger, yes! I have some sharper ones identifying what the FBI is doing now compared to the old KGB. Intimidation!

      Reply
  4. Mike Bryant says:
    4 years ago

    Roy, perfectly and beautifully said. It’s funny that all those who were for slavery during our Civil War, have moved to Washington D.C. and are enslaving all of us.
    Here’s a great video from Rumble.com that’s true, funny and makes some excellent points… just like your great poem.
    It’s about thirty minutes long, but worth the investment of time.

    https://rumble.com/search/video?q=Intellectual%20froglegs

    Rumble is the new YouTube… minus the conservative censorship.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson says:
      4 years ago

      I will make sure to view that by tomorrow! Thank you for the wonderful support and point on comments!

      Reply
  5. Paul Freeman says:
    4 years ago

    This purple ‘malaise’ seems to be universal:

    And when we see a fair election
    results in not our own selection
    our minds become a purple haze –
    an insurrectional malaise.

    I’m referencing the likes of Myanmar, of course.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant says:
      4 years ago

      Of course the world’s not on a par
      With the likes of Myanmar!
      Those living in a purple haze
      Are clearly blind to purple ways.

      Reply
    • Mike Bryant says:
      4 years ago

      If ‘fair’ is changing all the rules
      By bought-and-paid-for, China’s fools,
      Then setting thugs and killers free,
      Then, yes, with Freeman I agree.

      I’ve included an inversion in the last line as commentary on where we are now.

      Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson says:
      4 years ago

      I understand Myanmar and what happens there. I did not expect to see it in the USA, but here we are with an illegitimate president. Note: I never use the name of the occupant with that title.

      Reply
    • Joe Tessitore says:
      4 years ago

      To have so blatantly and so obviously stolen a presidential election and to do nothing at all to cover up the fact that you have is a display of unprecedented power – you would be wise, Mr. Freeman, to think twice before you belittle the achievement by characterizing it as “fair”.

      Reply
  6. Damian Robin says:
    4 years ago

    Thanks for this inventive piece, Roy.
    It covers a lot with brightness and aplomb.
    Keep on Roy, it is a joy.

    We could go back through wastes of time
    To giant rocks who’ve gathered slime
    See in their Retro embryo
    In speckly, bootleg video
    The wacko kings of rolling Rock
    Madly cavort before they crock.

    Though Hendrix squirmed in drug-fugged haze
    And garnered sex and bi-sex praise
    And screwed the National Anthem’s face
    With a crutchering backup drum and base,
    His anguished soul he kept encased
    And grand musicianship laid waste.

    And one-time Prince, so sensitive,
    Whose Paisley Park was drug-active,
    Adored, stood out in Purple Rain,
    But later sometimes used a cane
    To salve his onstage overkill,
    Then overdose of Fentanyl.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson says:
      4 years ago

      Trenchant poetry and fitting. I purposely stayed away from Purple Rain, although I was cognizant of it and the drug relationships you mention. In the first verse one can construe that drugs are involved, as part of the problem. I will neither confirm, nor deny my intentions, which actually covers a broad range of actions that could include that by so-called, “progressives,” as one of their problems.

      Reply
  7. Mike Bryant says:
    4 years ago

    Roy, I’m liking your poem more all the time. It’s inspiring.

    The Purple push diversity,
    But here’s the sheer perversity-
    The Purple never teach or preach
    Diversity of thought or speech.

    Reply

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