She spends
Most of her time
Cleaning the house
And preparing food
For everyone else.
Once in a while
She’s permitted to
Go do the shopping
At the market and come
Straight back home.
Her brothers go off
To school each day,
She watches them
Longingly from
The window.
Sometime before she
Turns eighteen,
She will
Be promised to
A stranger.
It seems like just
The other day
You and I
Talked about things
Vast and light,
Playing off each other
As only those
Who are close do.
A familiar scene
Repeated with startling
Regularity.
One person,
Riddled with fear,
Discriminates against another.
The next step is to
Cry foul and insist the
Victim is the perpetrator.
Building a house of
Maudlin self-pity,
Pretending they’re persecuted.
Maiming others
With impunity by
Claiming self-defense.
He could get very
Angry about the situation
But chooses instead to
Wish the object of
His contempt well and
Move on with his life.
Sometimes, oftentimes,
It’s just better to
Let things go and
Heal the world in
Some small way.
Same hierarchy imposed,
People standing
In rancid cliques pretending
To feel comfortable
In their own skins.
Reliving past triumphs
And the rush that came
From disparaging others,
Walking by with a nose
In the air, punch on the arm.
Years later,
Glory days still fondly
Revisited by husks
Too broken to rewire
The obsolete mess.
Human suffering
Appears to have
Absolutely no impact
On him.
He doesn’t seem
To care at all whether
A child goes hungry
Or a mother falls ill.
No concept of
Fairness, equality,
Or trace of most
Basic compassion.
Nobody ever helped him,
Completely self-made,
At least that’s what
He tells others.
I tried to explain
Over and over but
He wouldn’t listen.
No matter how little
He really knew about
The situation,
He still heard
Only his own voice,
He always knows better.
He has to win
All the time,
Or everyone loses.
Tantrum after
Horrible tantrum
Erupting.
An ugly spectacle
Writhing on
The floor.
Their march will continue,
Until every single
Person believes exactly
What they believe and
Acts exactly as they
Want everyone to act,
And looks exactly like
They all look,
And believes in the
Same fabricated nonsense.
Then they will find
Something else to revile,
Some other group to exclude,
Another contrived target to
Denigrate and spew their
Wretched,
Unquenchable,
Unlimited,
Unreasonable
Hate upon.
