Not knowing where it is,
No idea,
No recollection,
Anxiety, guilt,
Fear that it is about
Much more than
The object,
A transition to
Something else.
My granddaughter and I sit
Together and I tell her
About a time when we
Finally resolved to
Take care of those
Less fortunate than ourselves,
That the collective whole was
More important than any one person,
No matter how wealthy or powerful,
That a little girl like her
Was just as valuable as
The richest man on earth,
And everyone was cherished.
With the money from
A single bloated military
Contract, they could give
Every woman, child, and man
A million dollars, or rebuild
Our public schools, expand
Health care, develop alternative
Energy, create a jobs program,
But they decide the common good
Doesn’t matter as much as
Fattening the pockets of
Corporations to bursting.
The water-stained
Asbestos ceiling tiles
Tell a tale of a
Community left behind,
Children who
Don’t matter,
A future denied.
Mark sees his wages
Staying the same
Year after year while
Prices for everything
Go up. He feels like
No one is listening
To him, like no one
Cares at all for
People like him.
Pressure building inside,
Seething dissatisfaction,
He follows the first
Person who assures him
Everything will be okay,
The very same character
Who will see to it that
Mark keeps suffering.
She says it again.
Silence.
Uncomfortable rustling.
All the things that
Haven’t been dealt with,
Exposed.
A moment of hope,
Something different,
Lost to fear.
He’s reading from the
Manual on how to destroy
A democracy and realizes
That all he really has
To do is manipulate the
Part of the population
That lives in fear,
Hates ambiguity, and
Craves an imposing
Father figure promising
Safety and order while
Eradicating equality.
It’s on video,
The story of
How things have
Always been,
Out in the open.
Recoiling in horror,
They hate that they’ve
Been discovered,
Not a drop of
Remorse or
Self-reflection,
Total absence of shame.
So many things to do,
Each one seemingly
More daunting
Than the last,
Roiling helplessness,
Inner fallacies derailing
Otherwise simple tasks.
