Tweets of The Ancients

While Washington Burns,
A Pause in The Disaster
Before it Gets Worse

January 8, 2018

Many of you are (wishing you were not) aware of Twitter. We are currently laboring under the first Twitter-crazed White House occupant. Donald Chrump is incapable of formulating and expressing cogent ideas and is deathly afraid of reporters, so we are left with his relentless tweeting. He is even afraid to walk down the hall and make an appearance alongside his press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Many people are saying that this is simply a matter of Chrump not wanting to be any closer the Huckabee Sanders than necessary, or because he could not get his pants on that day, and not because he is scared to death of facing actual questions that demand answers. Instead, Der Furor appeared in video form recently, to remind (i.e., con) everyone what a tremendous president he is and how badly he is being treated. SAD.

Pay no attention to the man on the curtains

A Jack of All Tirades

Putting aside the horrific, ignorant, infantile, dangerous, weapons-grade content of Chrump’s incessant tweets, I must admit that I find it amazing that this clueless chowder head can count up to and stop at 280 characters in order not to exceed the maximum allowable on Twitter. It must be said that if not for the aforementioned horrific, ignorant, infantile, dangerous, weapons-grade tweeting, we would be in much deeper, hotter water. If Chrump did not constantly rub our faces in his cognitive excrement, the Republican’ts would be running a much more successful agenda of crushing civil rights, voting rights, economic justice, the environment, science, etc.

I rest my case.

 

Seventeen Syllables

Being old, I remember Haiku. I was not around when Haiku first started, but I enjoy the simplicity, the brevity and the durability of the art form. Had to write them in high school. Full disclosure: I also enjoy vinyl recordings. Haiku is basically the original tweet. Simple. Elegant. Brief. Always been a fan.

Here are three examples from Basho Matsuo (1644-1694), considered the greatest haiku poet:

An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.

Autumn moonlight –
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.

In the twilight rain
these brilliant-hued hibiscus –
A lovely sunset.

Some more recent examples from someone considered nowhere near the greatest haiku poet:

Exalted leaders
embarrass themselves daily
by talking too much

The brainless man can
be elevated above all
by lying bigly

And it gets even worse:

So-called president
orange hued birdbrain tweeter
Donald J. Chrump. SAD!

Phony billionaire
extraordinary Con man
actually broke

Can’t read, can’t think of
anything besides his “hair”
and TV ratings

Orange flatulence
deeply in love with himself
for no good reason

So-called president
neither clue nor interest
he’d much rather golf

White House infected
renegade virus with “hair”
having his way. Ouch.

Brain damaged tweeter
words happen, thoughtless, hateful
when will he stop it?

Like a really smart
person, a stable genius
who could ask for more

He’s like, really smart
though in fact not smart at all
like really, not smart

I hope you will be inspired to create your own Haiku. It’s easy, and usually under 100 characters.

I. Mangrey at work
callin’ ‘em like I see ‘em
like a smart person