There’s a small restaurant I
Particularly enjoy. Carefully prepared,
Hearty fare, deeply satisfying and
Unstuffy. Interesting people talking
Animatedly about the latest goings on.
Smiling faces, delightful company.
Time passes with casual unhurriedness.
You walk in.
Easy to ignore
Their existence,
Not part of daily
Experience, concerns, routine.
No personal connection.
Perhaps they come into
Occasional view, some
News story about distant
Problems, those people
Doing what they always do.
Unperturbed by mentions of
Strife, decay, struggle.
Walk down the hall,
Well-appointed office,
Comfortable detachment.
With one stroke of a pen,
And a clueless
Self-satisfied smile,
He continues his
Sadistic march
Toward making sure
Millions of people
Can’t afford health care.
In times of encroaching
Authoritarianism,
One of the only safeguards
We have to protect democracy
Is the fourth estate,
Unless it too is compromised
By corporate interests or
Takes the form of
Partisan propaganda masquerading
As news in order to perpetuate
A one-sided brutal agenda
Portending calamity.
He’s the kind of person
Who has no problem
Lying to get what he wants,
Creating simple-minded
Diversions that
Hide the truth about
His wretched actions,
A closed, damaged creature
Lashing out at specters,
Enemies around every corner,
Oppression his only tool,
Get them before they get you.
The black gunk
Oozes into every recess,
Especially the halls of power,
Where it buys votes in spite of
The great harm it inflicts,
People gasping for air,
Wilderness besmirched,
Climate changed,
Alternatives strangled,
A few enriching themselves
At the expense of
Everything else.
These are people of
Great self-described
Sobriety and moral character,
Virtue and uprightness,
Ready at any moment
To impose their insecurities
On others and limit
The rights of anyone
They deem to be lesser,
Today it’s women,
Just so they can
Feel better about themselves
For a moment.
Money and power are
More important than
Human lives to this clan.
Anything they can do
To fleece and hurt others
Makes them feel better.
Don’t ask for help,
They don’t know how to give it,
Only how to punish.
No matter how
Many people die,
They look the other way,
It being far more important
To help corporations
Make money from death
Than to care for the
Well-being of human beings.
