WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST

WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST

Maritime tradition points the way
To vaccine priorities in our day,
Long-covid threats to be nursed:
Save the women and children first!

Those that tend and care and treat
And serve the sick in noble feat -
Selfless work earns approbation,
Should top a list for vaccination.

Politicians, bureaucrats, very last,
That let the covid spread to cast
Its pall upon earth’s population
With ignorance and obfuscation.

THE BARD ON "FAMINE"

FAMINE
(Black Horse to the Fore)

Locusts and floods
For shortage of foods
Reported on page twenty-four.
Those won't make front page
Till kids of young age
Have bones sticking out of their skin -
A picture for readers to skim.

THE BARD ON THE "LET 'ER RIP" COVID CROWD

LET ‘ER RIP

The antivaccine and open-up crowd

And anti-mask brigades

Where egoed leaders lunacy lead

Ignore the Covid threat

Creating catastrophe for mankind.

The virus mutates aggressively

And seriously afflict the mind.

BARD'S RECIPE FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY

REMOTE REALITY

(Fish and Berries)

The fisher’s catch to feed our breed

With private sales, no markup greed.

Local goods to move to fore:

Poultry, pigs, sheep and more,

Veggie-plots to produce grow,

Simple ways for food to flow.

THE CHEAP SEAT CATASTROPHE

THE CHEAP SEAT CATASTROPHE

Cruise lines, bus lines, train lines AIRLINES

Move us round like canned sardines.

They sit us down in tiny seats

With bodies bound, cheek to cheek

To share the air tween all throughout,

That circulates and mixes croup.

VULTURES SIGHTING AN OMEN, SAYS THE BARD

VULTURES

(A Turkey Vulture (bird) was seen by local birders on Roche Street, St. John’s, on Nov.05. Seen again in flight on Nov. 10 - last seen over Confederation Building!)

A Vulture sighted in St. John’s -

It scavenges from dead!

Perhaps it is an omen

Of the coming of The Fed

To bare the bones of Province

That debt and folly’s fed?

GROWING DOPEY

Tax revenues for growing dope!
But growing food? Scant funding hope.
It's policy from Pols myope,
When shops run out, how do we cope?

In NL where the weather tries
And ferry service oft awry
And washouts due to rain are high
On long-haul transport can't rely.

BARD'S QUESTION FOR THE AGING MASSES

WHEN FEEBLE COMES

A question for the aging masses:
When feeble comes,
Who’ll wipe our arses?

In this time of smartphone fret
And fixation on the internet,
If wiping can’t be done by app.

HAPPY NEW YEAR IN VERSE, OF COURSE

HAPPY NEW YEAR

An open stove -

Wood-junks burn

Red-orange-yellow

In flickering flames -

A rosy glow.

Scent of smoke,

And ghostly faces

In coals and soot.

THE BARD ON MUSKRAT, MARIJUANA AND CORRUPTION

SUITS?

Do “Suits in Boots”* with greedy hand

Plunder freely projects grand,

And Shills attest the sleight-of-hand

As arrogance and hubris brand.  

Muskrat? Marijuana land? Et al, all demand

The question: who commands?

Who’s biggest suit from Newfoundland?

Democracy’s a thin veneer -

Lip service only, leads the cheer.

Dishonesty comes with curling sneer

As strings are pulled for elite sphere.

Does Province vie in corruption van

With Stans, Somalias, and Sudan

As numbers veil the anchorman?

John Tuach

Pynn’s Brook

December 23, 2018

*- Quote: Andy Wells, The Muskrat Falls Inquiry

BARD ASKS IF MUSKRAT WAS STUPIDITY OR MORE

DAM ENQUIRY

As dam inquiry grinds along,

A dismal tale unfolds.

It follows on the lines

That the Gnarley Blog foretold.

With bullying and with bluster

A ‘bill of goods’ was sold.

Next we need to ask

Of fraud and theft untold?

Or is it plain stupidity

That left us debt to hold?

John Tuach 

October 30, 2018

BLOG NEWS: BARD MAKES BLOGGER BLUSH

BLOG DUES

Two million pageviews! Now that’s Blog news,

As Uncle Gnarley tries to clue

The uninformed and unenlightened

On NL matters, with a bite in.

One of few that truth pursues

On hidden facts and obscured issues.

A mighty task to dare to ask

For honesty, and to graft unmask.

Through constant fog, he writes away

To shine the light on unearned pay,

And always with a reasoned view.

To Des Sullivan, much thanks are due.

John Tuach

March 29, 2018

ON ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL

G STRINGS

(funds and awards)

George Bernard Shaw: “Government that robs Peter to pay Paul has the support of Paul”

When funding springs from G -

Who bares the truth? Who dares critique?

Who pulls the string for action flawed?

Who allots the jackpot-awed?

Who probes and prods as heretic?

Approval in the loud applaud.

EX-PATS COME HOME...PLEASE!

EX-PATS 

(Come Home... Please!)

The Province and MUN is hosting little chats
in the hopes of luring Expat’s and Alumni back -
seeking extra revenues for interest on the bonds,
and to gain from their experiences in the bigger Ponds.

Surveying to find why Pats fled in want attack!

Why-survey costs to save: well-paid work, a lack.
NL jobs are scarce and most in Pol’s embrace,
folks wouldn’t have to leave if opportunity the case.

THE BARD ON TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS

FILLING IN

They're filling in along the shore,

On mudflat, bog, and gravel bar.

At riverside and through the Bay

No buffer zones enforced today.

In many towns Municipal

In Provincial Parks or Federal

The excavators and big trucks

On Preserves are dumping muck.

THE BARD ASKS: WHO SETS THE RULES?

PRESELECTION

Could it be a new direction,

Or in effect a preelection?

Would we see a change in graft -

Taxpayers’ still to get the shaft?

Who sets rules for rules to craft?   

Who preselects the preselectors?

Academics or Corp. directors?

Or legal minds for fees to fill?

Or politicians at municipal till?

Bureaucrats with time to kill?

Special interests to top the Hill.

Who’s for good of common Will?  

John Tuach

January 26, 2018

THE LOOTERY CABAL?

THE LOOTERY CABAL? 

(Big Job Draw*)

Victims will need to hear and see the names appear -

Of racketeers - of those who planned to profiteer, 

Dreamt of public debt, and commandeered a future drear. 

Audacity to admire, and to condemn with tear.

THE BARD ON THE SKUNK CASH MACHINE

Skunk (definition): Strong Weed. Ridiculously strong. Usually grown outdoors. It is a guaranteed f**king-up. This is the kind of weed that leaves you sitting there giggling for twenty minutes, your legs numb, your mind completely bricked, and your hands so twitchy you keep spilling the bongwater all over the floor. Another definition - only slightly different - is found on this link.

THE SKUNK CASH MACHINE 

The future to pot, Government’s bought,

Hundreds of jobs, excitement has caught.

Plants plan to proceed, now guaranteed:

Twelve tonnes to process has been agreed. 

THE BARD AND THE RISKS OF BUILDING ON CLAY

THE WISE MAN AND THE FOOLISH MAN*

The wise man built upon a rock, the foolish built on sand. 

The bible's lesson:  on sand, the structure will not stand.*

Clay, it's weaker than the sand, and, it's prone to collapse,  

And yet, at Muskrat Falls, clay planned as Churchill trap.**

A natural ridge with clay to impede the Churchill flow?

A natural dam with quick clay - part collapsed decades ago!

No mention in the bible of the man that built on clay:

Such building is foolhardy, maybe doesn't need to say. 

JIM LESTER GETS ADVICE FROM THE BARD

From the Bard of Pynn's Brook

LESTER, MHA

Jim Lester leaves the family farm,

The Mount Pearl seat, to keep it warm.

Knows the turkey, and it’s charm;

Manure that clings will not alarm.

Let’s pray his time up on the hill

Will more than just his pension fill:

Perhaps he’ll work to change instil? -

And lower future heating bill.

- John Tuach

November 22, 2017