Thursday Thoughts - On David Siegel and Urban Legends

Burp Attack

by Rachel Hoyt

 

image by Marcus74id via freedigitalphotos.net

 

 

One day, The Ruler of Resorts

Looked out at his empire,

Gazed upon a small, green cohort

Some kids viewed as a squire.

Mac the turtle,

Toppled king Yertle -

With one simple burp,

He fell like a twerp.

The Ruler of Resorts knew stuff,

Which mostly he'd learned online,

And so he Googled, "How to rule tough,"

And made plans to thicken his spine.

Mac the turtle,

Pictured king Yertle,

Plummeting in fear,

Then yelled, "Boo!" in his ear.

The Ruler donned his crown

And gathered the thoughts he'd procured,

Wrote his insanity down

And mailed it before he matured.

Mac the turtle,

Laughed at pseudo-Yertle,

"You know you can't succeed.

I'm the yang to your yin greed!"

Knowing Mac was just a small voice,

Unlikely to sue for plagiarism,

The Ruler of Resorts stole his words by choice

With naive hopes of stopping a schism.

Mac the turtle,

Channelled king Yertle,

To decide what to do -

One burp or two?

Yertle fell quickly, but the Ruler's demise

Came from two distinct lifequakes -

One writer now richer for writing good lies

And staff gone on strike, "For Thought's Sake".

 

© 2012 Rachel Hoyt. All rights reserved

Inspired by this letter by David Siegel to his employees

and written in hopes the ending will resemble Dr. Seuss's, "Yertle the Turtle".

Technorati Tags: David Siegel, Threat, Jobs, Rhyme, Poetry

Read more rhymes by Rachel at her new column, Clickety Clack -

poetic news about Santa Barbarians talking back

 

Monday Mumbles - Censorship and SOPA

Matter, Don't Mind

by Rachel Hoyt

Image by Idea Go

Dr. Seuss said those who matter don't mind

and those that mind don't matter,

but what if one day we find

neither is true - especially the latter?

No Seussical land imagined the web

spreading dumb thoughts far and wide.

His statement meant more spoken to a deb

with strict conduct by which to abide.

To those who have flailed their opinions

as often and loudly as possible,

it's normal to wish for censoring minions,

but is this wish truly plausible?

Can we keep our right to say what we mean

while policing the websites that do wrong?

Will the world wide web someday be more lean

or will ideas bounce back and forth like ping pong?

I like to think I'm one who matters

and usually I don't mind

if your opinion shamelessly flatters

one who I don't call my kind.

Some of the evils that lurk online

do need minding from the authorities,

but why should laws threaten words of mine

to stop obvious law-breakers like these?

© 2012 Rachel Hoyt.   All rights reserved.

UPDATE:

I won 3rd Place
and have a big smile on my face.

Technorati Tags: Censorship, SOPA, Rhyme, Humor, News, Poetry