• Submit Poetry
  • Support SCP
  • About Us
  • Members
  • Join
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Society of Classical Poets
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books
No Result
View All Result
Society of Classical Poets
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books
No Result
View All Result
Society of Classical Poets
No Result
View All Result
Home Poetry Culture

‘Cruise Control?’ and Other Poetry by Tonia Kalouria

September 25, 2022
in Culture, Humor, Poetry
A A
11
poems 'Cruise Control?' and Other Poetry by Tonia Kalouria

.

Cruise Control?

based on a real incident in San Francisco on
April 1, 2022 (though not an April Fool’s joke)

A well-mannered Cruise driverless-car
Drove light-less, but didn’t get far.
Its empty seats were perused,
By cops in their cruiser, confused:
No driver to argue or spar!

The well-mannered Cruise driverless-car
Bolted forward, but didn’t go far.
The same pull-over cops, still confused,
Said: “What is this, some sort of a ruse?!”
“Ain’t nobody in there—bizarre!”

EPILOGUE

No citations were made.
No tickets conveyed.
Not from there, nor not later, afar.
Sine die!

.

.

The Tax Men Cometh

Here come the thundering hordes of Troops,
Goose-stepping row on row;
Those boots will leave no stone unturned
Of family, friend or foe.

At first-jolt of their battering ram,
Fire up the pot for tea:
Better to get it over with,
As there’s nowhere to flee.

…When the tumult’s dust has dwindled,
With limo-tanks in gear,
Think-not that you are in good stead
With no more grilles to fear… .

The Tax Men next will seek cold files
From good ole yesteryear.

.

.

Put-Upon Hubby Puts Back!

“Hey, Hon, let’s redecorate!”
(Some book got her feng-shuied.)
“Well, there’s no harm in harmony,”
he thought, although dismayed.
To make more spaces for the chi,
’twas simple: “Less is more.”
Yet troops of lucky money frogs
were posted at each door.
Then Yin removed all bathroom doors
to usher in chi’s flow,
And Yang‘s cozy, La-zy-Zzz’s chair?
Replaced with van der Rohe!
Then Yang was draggin’ through that tube
—once fondly called his Castle.
From room-to-room-to-empty-room,
like some impoverished vassal.
But spacey-ness grew ever thin …
“ENOUGH!” and “That’s just TOUGH!”
Incensed without his Man Cave Den,
Yang cluttered up Yin’s “stupid Zen.”
And brought back all their stuff.
__(And then some.)

.

.

Tonia Kalouria, a former Spanish teacher and “soap” actress, is now a poet in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Her most recent—and rhyming—poems appear in Literary Veganism and Fox Hollow Stories, and two anthologies: “Quoth the Raven” and “Poems from the Lockdown.”

ShareTweetPin
The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.
Read Our Comments Policy Here

RandomPoems

A Poem on Gun Control and Other Poems by Stephen M. Dickey
Culture

A Poem on Gun Control and Other Poems by Stephen M. Dickey

September 16, 2022

. I. Lefties, in fact, are cool with using guns. Their Mayakovsky howled The floor is yours, Comrade Mauser! as they came...

poem/cook/satire
Poetry

‘Three Ways of Avoiding Reason’: A Poem by Sally Cook

September 18, 2023

. Three Ways of Avoiding Reason . Ambivalence The man who doesn’t want a thing (And then he does) will...

Next Post
‘Sentimental Song’ and Other Poetry by Angel L. Villanueva

'Sentimental Song' and Other Poetry by Angel L. Villanueva

‘Sex in the English Garden’ and Other Poetry by Sally Cook

'Sex in the English Garden' and Other Poetry by Sally Cook

‘The Last Detail’ and Other Poetry by Julian Woodruff

'The Last Detail' and Other Poetry by Julian Woodruff

Comments 11

  1. Russel Winick says:
    4 years ago

    Tonia – I really enjoyed all three of these poems. Don’t know what’s scarier – driverless cars, or cars driven by people using the recreational marijuana that the Left pushes as an ideal solution to expanding the tax base. And speaking of taxes, let’s hope that the topic of your second poem becomes a “be careful what you wish for” disaster for the Democrats. As for poem #3, well, us husbands just like what we like. You nailed that!

    Reply
  2. Tonia Kalouria says:
    4 years ago

    Thanks, Russel. Yes, I was def on the Hubby’s side on that one.

    Reply
  3. Roy E. Peterson says:
    4 years ago

    I can just imagine the confusion and the scrambled decision-making process in the first poem. Thank you for alerting us it really happened. I have a similar view of poem #2 and indeed wrote my own after the announcement of adding 87,000 IRS agents. I was in great sympathy with your husband in poem #3 and praise you for having a heart!

    Reply
    • Tonia Kalouria says:
      4 years ago

      Thanks, Roy.
      It would be too logical to beef up the border with some of those 87,000
      I guess. Everyone I know already has some sort of IRS horror story — imagine
      with all those armed and not afraid to use’em more agents.

      Thank you, Roy. I suppose sending some of those 87,000 down to the border instead would be too logical. THEY (the agents) are the armed and dangerous ones. Let them go after cartels, not hard-working citizens.

      Reply
      • Roy E. Peterson says:
        4 years ago

        Absolutely agree! What a waste!

        Reply
  4. Jeff Eardley says:
    4 years ago

    Tonia, I enjoyed reading all these. The driverless car tale is scary, as are the goose-stepping hordes of Taxmen. ( The Beatles wrote a great song about them.) I am just off to the man-cave to have another listen. Great fun today, thank you.

    Reply
    • Tonia Kalouria says:
      4 years ago

      Thank you, Jeff. As for scary, as Leno used to say, “What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

      Reply
  5. Paul Freeman says:
    4 years ago

    Three fun reads and thought-provoking reads, Tonia.

    Those autonomous cars freak us out now, yet many metro systems have driverless trains.

    It does seem over-excessive sending out the taxmen in such a bullyboy manner.

    Your Ying-Yang poem put me in mind of the advert below, which I’m sure you’ll appreciate:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXWQtrGJt4w

    Thanks for the reads.

    Reply
    • Tonia Kalouria says:
      4 years ago

      Hello, Paul,
      Thanks for your comments AND the fun, apropos video!

      Reply
  6. Patricia Redfern says:
    4 years ago

    Dear Tonia~

    Zowie! Your “Tax Man Cometh” is a powerfully true,
    humorous account of what we fear! And this year, in the US, one can expect Storm Troopers. Our president, thinks he’s a leader, by threatening people?
    Not! Thank you for your delightful work!
    Patricia Redfern

    Reply
    • Tonia Kalouria says:
      4 years ago

      Thanks so much, Patricia. It is indeed, scary. Between the FBI and the IRS … .
      God help us all!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. Joseph S. Salemi on ‘On An Old Photograph’: A Poem by Joseph S. SalemiMay 13, 2026

    Thank you very much, Paul. I suppose the most frightening thing about monumental historical changes is that, when we are…

  2. C.B. Anderson on Winners of Friends of Falun Gong 2026 Poetry Competition AnnouncedMay 13, 2026

    This is grim stuff, no doubt, and the idea of becoming friendly with the Chicoms is antithetical to any moral…

  3. Roy Eugene Peterson on ‘Creation of Mom’: A Mother’s Day Poem by Roy E. PetersonMay 13, 2026

    Thank you, Paul for the commendation!

  4. Paul Freeman on ‘On An Old Photograph’: A Poem by Joseph S. SalemiMay 13, 2026

    I enjoyed how the everyday events of life are placed against the monumental changes happening around the parents and the…

  5. Paul Freeman on ‘Creation of Mom’: A Mother’s Day Poem by Roy E. PetersonMay 13, 2026

    I enjoyed the joyousness of this poem, Roy. It starts with a fun stanza to set the tone and gallops…

Subscribe to Daily Poems

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,593 other subscribers

Recent Poems

  • ‘To May, the Prince of Months’ by Eustache Deschamps, Translated by Margaret Coats
  • Winners of Friends of Falun Gong 2026 Poetry Competition Announced
  • A Poem on Coach “Black Mike” Castronis from Athens Y Camp, by Alec Ream
  • A Poem on the Zambian National Park Mosi-oa-Tunya, by Paul A. Freeman
  • ‘Creation of Mom’: A Mother’s Day Poem by Roy E. Peterson
  • ‘Spontaneous Conjugal Combustion’ and Other Poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant
  • ‘The Man in the Moon Was a Very Round Man’: A Poem by Lauren V. Leon
  • ‘Fibromytrauma’: A Poem by Golan Shahar
  • ‘A Lonely Sliver’: A Poem by Katie Tencza
  • ‘Higher Gas Prices Are a Small Price to Pay’: An Iran War Poem by Mark F. Stone
  • ‘Always Ahead’: A Poem by Scharlie Meeuws
  • ‘Hamlet’s Lawyer’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko
  • ‘On An Old Photograph’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi
  • ‘Faust Foresees His End’: A Poem by Martin Briggs
  • ‘À la Carte’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson
  • ‘Where the Sweet Bluebonnets Bloom’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson
  • ‘The Waters’: A Poem by Margaret Brinton
  • ‘The Pinnacle of Poetry’ and Other Poems by Russel Winick
  • The First American Sonnets: An Essay on David Humphreys, by Margaret Coats
  • ‘The Holy Rollers on Poetry’: A Poem by Joseph S. Salemi
  • Sappho’s ‘Poem 1’ Translated by Bruce Phenix
  • ‘The Cautionary Tale of Phone Addicted Mimi’: A Poem by Paul A. Freeman
  • ‘Look Away’: A Poem for America’s 250th Anniversary, by Roger Crane
  • ‘Sunday Morning in Canada’: A Poem by Jeffrey Essmann
  • ‘Bean’: A Poem by Jan Mennite
  • ‘The Swan’s Song ’: A Poem for Shakespeare’s Birthday, by Susan Jarvis Bryant
  • ‘The Gravedigger’: A Poem by Marie Burdett
  • ‘Waiting for the Perfect Man’: A Poem by Janice Canerdy
  • ‘The George-A-Saurus’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko
  • ‘When Asked: What’s Your Favorite Season?’: A Poem by Paul Millan  

Categories

  • Acrostic
  • Alexandroid
  • Alliterative
  • Art
  • Best Poems
  • Blank Verse
  • Chant Royal
  • Classical Poets Live
  • Clerihew
  • Covid-19
  • Deconstructing Communism
  • Educational
  • Epic
  • Epigrams and Proverbs
  • Essays
    • Interviews with Poets
    • Poetry Reviews
  • Featured
  • From the Society
  • Great Poets
    • Dante Alighieri
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Homer
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Robert Frost
    • William Blake
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
  • Human Rights in China
  • Limerick
  • Love Poems
  • Music
  • Pantoum
  • Performing Arts
  • Poetry
    • Beauty
    • Children's Poems
    • Culture
    • Ekphrastic
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Humor
    • Riddles
  • Poetry Challenge
  • Poetry Contests
  • Poetry Forms
    • Curtal Sonnet
    • Haiku
  • Poetry Readings
  • Rhupunt
  • Rondeau
  • Rondeau Redoublé
  • Rondel
  • Rubaiyat
  • Sapphic Verse
  • Satire
  • Science
  • Sestina
  • Shape Poems
  • Short Stories
  • Song Lyrics
  • Sonnet
  • Symposium
  • Terrorism
  • Terza Rima
  • The Environment
  • Translation
  • Triolet
  • Video
  • Villanelle

Quick Links

  • About Us
  • Submit Poetry
  • Become a Member
  • Members List
  • Support the Society
  • Advertisement Placement
  • Comments Policy
  • Terms of Use

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Humor
    • Children’s
    • Art
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Human Rights in China
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
    • Found Poems
    • High School Poets
    • Terrorism
    • Covid-19
  • Poetry Forms
    • Sonnet
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Villanelle
    • Rondeau
    • Pantoum
    • Sestina
    • Triolet
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Shape Poems
    • Terza Rima
  • Great Poets
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Homer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Dante Alighieri
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
    • William Blake
    • Robert Frost
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books

© 2025 SCP. WebDesign by CODEC Prime.