Skyward raised

· by · in dVerse, poetry. ·

Oh, venerable leader,
YOU
are like the fungi,
a toadstool fed from mycoriza
from the common soil,
from our daily toil.

Leader, you,
who we shouldn’t name,
is not a God but a humble man
who gives us monuments
to fill our hearts with pride.

Oh, esteemed ruler, chief
I know how deep you feel
my pangs of hunger
my fears & lack of knowledge
I know how much deserved
the wealth you skim,
is yours and only yours.

You my king, my czar,
the emperor
we have deserved
I honor you, your wisdom
your gilded wealth
from the deepest of my heart
with my noble middle-finger
skyward raised.

Charles II of Spain
Claudio Coello

Today Punam hosts dVerse poetics where she wants us to write a poem featuring irreverence. I made mine a bit satirical and I think it could fit many megliomanic and incompetent leaders from past and present. King Charles the II of Spain was probably one of the worst kings ever. He was the son of Philip IV and his niece Mariana of Austria. Generations of intense dynastic inbreeding resulted in an inbreeding coefficient higher than that of a child born to full siblings, and therfore suffered from severe physical and mental impairments, including rickets, epilepsy, an enlarged tongue, a pronounced “Habsburg jaw” that made chewing nearly impossible, and chronic illnesses. But history is full of bad leaders.

October 10, 2026

7 responses to “Skyward raised”

  1. Now you’ve shown me how it’s done, Björn, I might have to rethink my poem. You’ve captured the ‘venerable leader’ in the ‘toadstool fed from mycoriza’ and I love  how you ended with a ’noble middle-finger skyward raised’.

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