He remembers when his
Father would take him
Downtown to see all the
Amazing buildings,
Visit their favorite museums,
Revel in the energy and
Bustle of the city,
Occasionally passing some
Tattered person huddled
Under boxes and newspapers,
His father impassively
Remarking that those people
Were somehow inferior.
All the things
He thought he was
Turned out to be
Errors planted there by
Other people,
Sometimes well-meaning,
But who had no idea
What it means to
Be courageous,
Follow one’s own path in life,
Free from the herd.
Sometime in the early 2000s
Corporations get the memo
That they can do whatever
They want: reduce the size of
Products and charge more for them,
Make everything cheaper so
It will break sooner,
Provide less and worse service,
Consolidate into monopolies,
Price exorbitantly,
Cater only to shareholders,
And nobody will do anything
About it, a methodical bleeding of
A shrinking middle class and
Growing swathes of
Human beings in poverty,
A new accepted cruelty.
Peace requires a
Bit more thought
Than blindly lashing out,
Stepping on another
Human being for personal gain,
Craving some fleeting sense of
Safety, superiority.
Inside each of us is
The wherewithal to
Heal ourselves so we may
Love others.
For much of her life,
She believed that
Her worth came from
What other people
Thought of her,
Constantly looking
For approval from
Sources ill-equipped
To provide it,
Hating herself when
The right words
Didn’t come.
He’ll never
Say it out loud,
At least not to
Anyone but his closest
Friends and family
Members who agree
With him, but he
Misses the days when
People knew their place,
And he was at the
Top of the heap,
And nobody
Questioned it.
Once-distant sounds
Intensely reverberating,
Return of suspicion,
Hatred, contempt for the
Unfamiliar, lack of
Tolerance and curiosity,
Marching in lockstep to
The exhortations of
Another furious ringleader,
Vicious howls of recognition,
Slide into darkness.
I saw a person today wearing
A T-shirt defending the
Civil Rights Movement and
I was deeply grateful that
There are people of conscience
Who are willing to stand in
Solidarity against hatred
And bigotry. History has
Shown us far too often
What happens when people
Don’t speak up.
When it became apparent
That things would not
Be as I wished, I still
Held out hope,
Surely there is another way,
One that won’t hurt
So much, that won’t
Make me hate myself.
Many years later,
Everything remains
The same, externally,
Though inside I still
Harbor some slight
Optimism that things
Will change though
They likely won’t.
