Greeted
A comforting summer
Sun envelopes me as I
Pedal up the hill,
Pines keeping me company,
Roads without sidewalks.
Turning into the driveway,
Just a few steps to the
Door where I’m greeted
With love and glee.
Usher In
It doesn’t take much
To usher in the tyrant,
Just some people who
Don’t see him coming
Because of something
Inside them and who
Invite him to grab the
Whole country in his
Greedy arms, breathing
Heavily with the lust for
Power, importance.
It’ll be his personal
Plaything, one he’ll enjoy
But quickly become bored with
And cast away like all
The other things that
Didn’t bring him joy.
Indistinguishable
They recognize each other,
Indistinguishable,
Echoing the same message,
No divergence of thought,
Satisfied with repeating
Common duplicate drivel,
Absence of critical thinking,
Ordinariness esteemed,
Swimming with the stream.
What a Difference
What a difference
Between the person who
Feels the suffering
Of another human being
And the one who can’t,
Or won’t.
What dissimilar
Paths they travel and
Worlds create,
One caring,
The other harsh, cruel.
Violent
Violent, rigid parenting
Forming people who see
The world as a harsh,
Adversarial nightmare where
Countless imaginary enemies
Must be forced into submission.
An unquenchable yearning for safety;
Single-minded conquest,
Remorseless cruelty.
It’s always the same story,
The damaged imposing their
Will on the vulnerable,
But it doesn’t have to
Be this way.
In the First Place
Pontificating about how
We all need to
Come together and
How important community is,
Conveniently overlooking
The reprehensible beliefs
He holds that created
The problem
In the first place.
Safe for a Moment
Inside him burns a
Fervent urge to go up to
Someone and tell them
What to do.
Unable to look at himself,
He finds ways to
Obnoxiously impose his
Insecurities on others,
Wrapping them in platitudes
About caring for humanity
Or being a moral person,
Obscuring the truth of
His twisted existence,
The need to stand
On someone’s head,
Feel safe for a moment.
Upheavals
When the people
At the top
Don’t listen to
Those at the bottom,
Terrible upheavals
Can, and do, occur.
As history has shown,
Someone will always
Be ready to fill the void,
Offering strength,
Safety, order,
A return to something.