If I should let Jon Edward fill my head
with messages relayed from one who's dead,
and I should heed a manufactured claim
of one lost ghost who can't recall his name;
if Madame Zelda sees writ in the stars,
or conjures from the influence of Mars
a single obstacle that I must face,
I'll hop aboard the next flight into space.
If water's memories can heal my ills,
well maybe I should toss out all these pills;
let homeopathy fix all my woes,
and thank God he invented placebos.
Once all the deities have gone to bed,
I'll jettison this nonsense from my head;
and superstition will be just a blur,
for reason makes a fine sockdolager.
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Author Notes
Today's word: sockdolager (n.) something of exceptional size or extraordinariness; a knockout blow.
I firmly believe "thoughts and prayers", as advocated by the US President after yet another senseless mass shooting, will do zero to fix the stupidity which leads to humans treating other humans as expendable. And all the nonsense we choose to fill our heads with only serves as a distraction from dealing with things sensibly. Two things can save our species: a sense of empathy, and the ability to reason. Because reason has the ability to change our destiny, if we use it properly, I think it truly deserves the term "sockdolager".
My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.
Thanks for reading.
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