Once in a While
Once in a while,
Leave the lights and excitement,
Take the obligatory trip
To a sad town where
Sad people tell sad stories about
Things that never happened.
Builders of Empire
Beautiful refined people
Redolent with art and culture,
Masters of finance,
Builders of empire.
Landing on distant shores,
Marching rows of
Shackled souls into
Loathsome holds.
Obscene wealth
Accumulated on the
Scarred backs of
The unfortunate.
Cultivating Discomfort
When given a choice, she embraced
The path that made her blood boil.
Lashing out instinctively, a fight for
Self-preservation in every exchange.
Days spent making enemies,
Cultivating discomfort.
Evenings spent pursuing an
Online connection, anybody.
Unable to escape the din,
Unwilling to turn it down.
Offer
I offer my heart, my vision, my passion.
The inside of my being exposed,
Vulnerable, yearning for validation, a
Scrap of hope, shred of approval, an
Outstretched helping hand. Please
See who I am, potential, promise.
Intangibles fall unrecognized
Before timorous eyes.
Hide
Each one more
Ordinary than
The other.
Competing for
Space, attention,
Recognition.
Hyperbole,
Embellishment,
Attempting to
Hide
Gaping holes.
Cast
It opens its wary green eye,
Suffusing the environs with a
Rotten, infirm cast of animosity and
Torment. It insecurely demands
Detail and explanation, stopping at
Nothing in its quest for answers.
Its vexation is a permanent parasite,
Leaching life out of all it penetrates.
Her Time
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.
Just the Other Day
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.
Self-Defense
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.