Too Fierce to Mention

Pied crow scavenging. Photo by John Fincham

*Oh, oh, the pied crow! / All the way to Mossel Bay / Flying high and swinging low / At the big sea turns to go.*

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Some things are too fierce to mention

But I mention them anyway!

I remember these crows from my childhood

In the "monstrous Karoo" (young Burchell's words)

Highly intelligent birds, they peck out the eyes

Of lambs—and sheep drought has weakened

There used to be a bounty on them—a shilling, I think

Someone once showed me a small bag of crows' heads

You took them to the police station and got paid.

Burchell loved Africa, especially perhaps the Karoo. Many years later in England, grown old and famous,

Filled with anguish, he killed himself

I warned you some things were too fierce to mention

Descending from the mountains near Graaff-Reinet

*Aai, aai, die Witborskraai!

Hiervandaan na Mosselbaai

Hoog gevlieg en laag geswaai

By die groot see omgedraai

--Afrikaans traditional ditty

A poem also using this epigraph, titled "Onsin" ("Nonsense"), appeared in Idyssey on September 1, 2023.

https://groundup.org.za/article/where-lambs-have-no-eyes_3002/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_John_Burchell

Thursday, November 27. 2025

Nothing New under the Sun

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.—Ecclesiastes 1:9 (KJV)

The Preacher, you protest, must be out to lunch.

Yes, Assyrians descended, wolves on the fold,

But Putin's cruel hitmen worse savage, as told,

With missiles and drones, when it comes to the crunch.

We have AI, smart phones, Elon Musk!

These things are all new, they're scarcely sub fusc.

Here novelty rages from sunrise till dusk.

Plastic archipelagoes accessorize the sea.

Rockets to Barsoom are sure soon to be.

Why, the wonders of MAGA are just on the cusp!

In his tomb under Zion, King Solomon stirred.

From deep in his dreaming, he muttered this word:

Fools! Sennacherib was like Netanyahu; Sargon like Trump,

They all do its bidding when AI says jump!

Artificial intelligence is nothing new.

It's natural wisdom that's vanished from view.

Elijah ascended in a chariot to heaven.

Smart telephones are Beelzebub's leaven.

There is no new thing, believe me, under the sun.

That battle was lost long before yours could be won.

Note: "Barsoom" is the Martians' name for their world in the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, evidently favorite reading in the Musk family. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom.

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

The Bagatelle

“Who is that bear whose porridge is always just right? I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.”—Ludwig Wittgenstein

Truth is provisional, time flows,

Where it comes from,

Where it goes,

No one knows,

Past and future live in our minds,

Depending on what the present finds,

The sun has spots, a leopard, too.

Commas are many. Full stops, few.

All or none of this may be true—

I can’t  tell.

Vive la bagatelle!

Tuesday, November 25, 2025