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The 2024 Olympics

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I.
Excusez-moi, s’il vous plait,
But having seen your lewd display,
I’ve chosen not to watch your Games;
Despite too late, half-hearted claims
Attempting to equivocate,
As if to merely celebrate
The gluttony of Dionysus;
And thereby hide your true blasphemous
Effrontery. I draw the line
At those who mock the bread and wine.

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II.
E. coli saturates the Seine—
A risk for those who swim it; and when
A man can ring a woman’s bell
And call it “boxing”—what the hell?
A Smurf-like man in skimpy Speedo?
Just give to me the Leonardo.

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Cheryl Corey is a poet who lives in Connecticut. “Three Sisters,” her trio of poems about the sisters of Fate which were first published by the Society of Classical Poets, are featured in “Gods and Monsters,” an anthology of mythological poems (MacMillan Children’s Books, 2023).

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The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


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20 Responses

    • Cheryl Corey

      Thanks, Cynthia. People can do what they want, but I just can’t bring myself to watch these Olympics. I’m not even a die-hard Catholic, but between that opening ceremony and allowing men to give women a beat-down, I’m totally disgusted.

      Reply
  2. Joseph S. Salemi

    The people who are running the Olympics are flaming assholes, so what else could we possibly expect from them?

    Allowing a biological male to punch a weaker woman in the face, and then defending it as perfectly acceptable? I’d love to see this Olympics committee get into a ring with some professional heavyweights, and get pummeled into pulp.

    Deliberately parodying an important religious event for no other reason except to show off drag queens, trannies, pedos, and other human garbage? Maybe the Olympics committee can arrange for a dance of Hamas terrorists over the corpses of October 7th victims.

    Asking swimmers to jump into the polluted Seine to perform? I’d rather see the entire Olympics committee drown in deep cesspools.

    I like this poem, because it is brave, and tells the truth. But I can’t help thinking that the intellectual dry-rot of left-liberalism is now too far advanced for any hope of a cure.

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey

      Thank you, Joseph. A triathalon swimmer said she saw things in the river that she shouldn’t have had to see. Floaters, i.e. turds? From what I’ve read, the men are soundly defeating every woman. What’s it going to take for people to come to their senses? Does a woman have to die?

      Reply
  3. Warren Bonham

    You get a 10 from me on this one. The degree of difficulty was high and the execution was flawless!

    Reply
  4. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Cheryl, you made the perfect assessment of the French hosting of the Olympics. For the first time in my life when I had the option of watching the Olympics and rooting for our athletes, I have not watched one single event. I opted out after the mocking and debasing opening. I happened to read about the disease(s) in the Seine and somehow felt it too, represented modern debauched French culture. I am glad you took the time to write this perfectly pointed poem.

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey

      Roy, I wrangled with my thoughts and feelings for a week as I tried to put pen to paper. I just had to get it out of my system. Your analogy of the filthy Seine to the debauchery of French (and I would include Western) culture is spot on. (Although efforts are ongoing to clean it up, and the current issue of the National Geographic just happens to have an article regarding the same) One of my sisters has also opted not to watch.

      Reply
  5. Lannie David Brockstein

    https://classicalpoets.org/2024/08/03/a-poem-on-the-2024-olympics-and-its-opening-by-cheryl-corey/

    The Olympics are supposed to promote the idea of all nations temporarily putting aside their differences, in order to remind themselves what healthy competition is really about. It is meant to be a sanctification of life.

    Instead, Emperor Macron’s 2024 Paris Olympics has earned a medal that is made of fool’s gold for its mindless hatred of Judaism and Christianity, its nauseating cesspool that is the Seine, and its permitting gender confused athletes to have a savage advantage over female athletes.

    Thank you Cheryl, for your “The 2024 Olympics” poem having adroitly shined a light on how demented France has become.

    From Lannie.

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey

      I know, Lannie. The Olympics were always supposed to be about sports, healthy bodies, and good, clean, healthy competition. The organizers’ focus on identity politics ruined it for me and countless others. It’s a new level of absurdity.

      Reply
  6. Maria

    Cheryl this is an admirable poem which makes an important point with dignity and finesse and of course so poetically. A complete contrast to the ceremony. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey

      Maria, I try to have a live and let live attitude, but the gender Nazis are constantly in our face. They expect others to not only tolerate, but also celebrate and promote their lifestyle. Cultural Marxism is unacceptable.

      Reply
  7. Sally Cook

    There can be no excuse for turning the games into a cheap fag bar joke. I wonder how much money had to change hands to bring this atrocity about?

    Decent people, and there are still a few left, cannot abide slime, in the Seine or elsewhere.

    Never give up your search for truth and decency in this world, and always use your talents to advance them both.

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey

      You have to feel bad for the athletes, whose years of training and accomplishment have been overshadowed by absolute filth.

      Reply
  8. Paul Freeman

    In-Seine Limerick

    I went for a dip in the Seine,
    Where hardy triathletes train.
    But now I’ve turned blue,
    Got symptoms like flu
    And a parasite’s lodged in my brain.

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey

      You’ve probably heard, Paul, that a female competitor dropped out when she became ill after swimming in the Seine.

      Reply
      • Paul A. Freeman

        I haven’t. I wrote the limerick about a week ago, when the state of the river water was being discussed. I reckon they went ahead with the race due to the amount of money that had been spent on cleaning up the river.

  9. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Cheryl, you have drawn attention to exactly I’ve switched off the Olympic farce… poetically… and perfectly!

    Reply
  10. Adam Sedia

    A withering and succinct summary of the clown show in Paris. I particularly like the closing couplet from the first stanza.

    Reply
  11. Margaret Coats

    Cheryl, I do not wonder that you “wrangled with thoughts and feelings” on this subject.

    The pagan Greeks would have disowned the perversity of the Paris Games as impiety against the Olympian gods.

    With regard to vast numbers of the French, let me quote Karen Darantiere, from a comment she made on July 28 about her work published here on July 27:

    “Being from Paris, I was particularly revolted by the spectacle of decadence and depravity which France offered the world during the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, so I offer this heroic crown in reparation.”

    I seem to remember that Olympic victors in the ancient games received crown wreaths rather than medals as prizes.

    Reply

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