A world set aflame

· by · in dVerse, glosa, poetry. ·

The world is a vampire, sent to drain
Secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames
And what do I get, for my pain?
Betrayed desires, and a piece of the game

(From: Bullet with Butterfly wings –
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins)

Clouding our shame in cordite in blast
horizons consumes with incestuous fists
pounding the cartilage and breaking the bones.
Where gold-digger merchants collecting the skulls
charred with the brands, claiming their wealth.
A desert storm that’s blending the tears
with sandy abrasions from the Ukraine
And coming to me a lead-greeting wrapped
for thrushes that’s crushed ‘gainst window-panes
the world is a vampire, sent to drain

For purpose of power I can’t understand
and claiming religion is better than books
The darkest beholder to murder their kin
as schools are more sinful than raping a girl.
Claiming to know what’s better in us
with the power of guns they get what they want.
Nigerian market with burden of claims
the children are belted, remote controlled bombs
as silent beholder for danger of names
secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames.

The pictures that haunts me at night
the faces of war, the victorious few
claiming the voice in my turbulent dreams
I’m betting my life on murderous drones
to kill them before they slaughter again.
To kill or be killed, a choice I can’t make.
Cause hearing the truths from the whispering rain
that evil reside also inside my heart
They’re human like me I don’t want them slain
and what do I get for my pain?

So what are they asking the zealously few
the one that can’t stand hearing a voice,
a boisterous laughter or music of strings?
A piece of the cake or that they can take
whatever they want from those who have less?
Complexity rising in mass-graves below
But who is the villain? Who is to blame?
The gun-manufacturer or the gasoline pumps,
for corporate greed we linger in shame
Betrayed desires, and a piece of the game.

Whetting the Scythe
Kathe Kollwitz

For today’s Open Link Night at dVerse hosted by Lisa I dug out an old glosa I wrote a few years back. The world has certainly not gotten better except that ISIS is now mostly gone, but there is still so much bad happening. How can we even remain all good in a world in days like these?

September 10, 2026

9 responses to “A world set aflame”

  1. You sum up the frustration and pain of living in a world of mass contradictions and unbelievable cruelty all in the name of greed and power, Björn. There is a bloodthirsty insanity in the collective consciousness that is hard to overlook.

  2. A world set aflame indeed, Björn, and nothing has improved since you first wrote this glosa.The first line is almost onomatopoeic, and you’ve captured violence in ‘incestuous fists pounding the cartilage and breaking the bones’, and the lines about  haunting at night and ‘turbulent dreams’ resonate with me.  The rhythm suits the theme and the internal rhyme of ‘a piece of the cake or that they can take whatever they want’.

  3. Bjorn, few/none of us are Mother Teresa. With a heart towards good, most/some of us do the best we can.

    Your poem is a clarion call to resist and to do better. So much is counting on it.

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