Irreverence

Black shadows hover
by the roadside,
eyeing up carrion
as traffic thunders by.

The splatted carcass
of a young deer,
unused to passing vehicles,
is a temptation,

an invitation
to peck at exposed innards,
a banquet for carnivorous birds,
a murder of cackling crows.

Kim M. Russell, 27th October 2026

Image by LumenSoft Technologies on Unsplash

This Tuesday at the dVerse Poets Pub, our host for Poetics is Punam, with the art of irreverence, which she says “often sits at the intersection of humour, rebellion, freedom, power, and common sense” and can be “a form of courage, a tool of the powerless, an expression of intelligence and sometimes , simply an excuse for bad manners.”

Whereas reverence asks us to treat certain things as sacred, beyond question, or deserving of deference, irreverence asks why. It “reminds us that a king is still a man, a bureaucrat is still a mortal, and an institution is not necessarily wise simply because it has endured.”

Punam reminds us that “artists, writers, poets, film makers have often used irreverence as an important tool to make a point. Think of Socrates, Aristotle , Plato, Oscar Wilde, The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin, and poetic examples include Alexander Pope’s ‘The Rape of the Lock’, W.H. Auden’s ‘The Unknown Citizen’ and Walt Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself’.

Punam asks us to write irreverent verse, possibly about “something that cannot bear to be laughed at like god, nation, family or traditions, or about an ordinary person’s accidental act of rebellion, like laughing during a solemn occasion or asking an inappropriate question at a large gathering.” We should keep it irreverent and not disrespectful.

29 thoughts on “Irreverence”

  1. I love this, Kim! I was driving earlier today, and my admiring the autumnal foliage was broken up by a deer carcass alongside the road.🫣

    I like how you combine visual aspects like black shadows, and splatted carcass, and elaboration on the black shadows perhaps in an invitation:
    “a banquet for carnivorous birds,
    a murder of cackling crows.”

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    1. Hi Gillena. I’m having problems commenting on your post, so I’ll write my comment here:
      Nicely done, Gillena, and I too snickered at the thought of a (particular) pompous emperor stark naked before a crowd – and then felt like throwing up!

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  8. Nice work Kim, i always feel so sorry for squirrels and birds, and deer and such that get mowed down in the name of progress. But at least crows get a “banquet for carnivorous birds” and “a murder of cackling crows” 🩵🐦‍⬛👑

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  11. You’ve brought back a memory of when I was a young teen I was walking down our country road and ahead of me a deer ran out in front of a pick up truck driving along. The guy in the truck got out, looked at the struggling deer, took out a big knife, slit it’s throat and put it in the back, then drove off as if it was just another day of country life!

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    1. I don’t eat meat so that would have made me throw up, Shaun. I remember when I lived in Ireland and old uncle of my then husband’s used to do the same with pheasants. I was shocked when he hung them in our pantry and then cooked them on our range.

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