Not much money
Coming in these days,
Bob got laid off and
My warehouse hours
Are still part-time.
We had to move recently,
Needed some furniture
For this place,
It’s not much but
It’s home for now.
This couch here,
Found it at a place
Where we can pay
A little each week and
Buy it over time.
Bruised during the most
Important formative years,
She grew up to crave power,
Dominance, control over others.
Routinely battered
Throughout her upbringing,
She flowered into a beautiful
Champion of the meek.
So this is
What we’ve become,
Or have always been
But hid for a while,
A land where
It’s acceptable
To put people down
Because you’re
Scared of change or
Anything that’s different,
A place where
The crushing weight of
Authority imposes
Its will and is welcomed
By far too many.
It’s far easier to
Say that those living in
Poverty are somehow
Flawed, lazy, deserving
Of their plight, than
To look at oneself
And acknowledge that it’s
One’s own beliefs,
Actions, values,
Contrived moral outrage,
That perpetuate a
System that keeps people
Right where they are.
Charting an unsteady course
Home from a party where
He enjoyed twenty too many,
It struck him that he was in an
Unfamiliar house.
Stumbling through rooms,
Desperately trying not
To announce his presence or
Bother anyone,
Maddeningly unable to do
Anything but flounder
Helplessly as he careened
From point to point.
A sad young creature winding
Its way toward a place it
Doesn’t want to be.
Only one point of view
Is respectable,
The moment ripe for
Grotesquely inadequate and
Malformed perceptions to
Populate well-meaning minds
Reacting from a place of
Pain and fear
Never admitted.
Maintain the momentum,
Eradicate dissenting utterances,
Sweep them under the rug as
Bothersome, trifling dust.
A new day arrives brandishing
A glinting sword, the
Contracted face of
Judgment unmistakable,
Zeal palpable.
As we’ve seen time and again,
Despots are not content with
Merely having all the
Riches and power.
It is not enough to
Control everything and
Everyone all the time
Without resistance.
Their inner neuroses
Demand further action,
Complete eradication of
Contemptible foes.
It’s always the same story:
Use language to denigrate and
Dehumanize their opponents,
Label them vermin.
Even regular, upstanding,
Normally kind people will
Eventually believe something
If it’s repeated enough.
A populace becomes convinced
That the enemy needs to be
Vanquished at any cost and
With extreme prejudice.
Unsettlingly tall smokestacks
Belch sinister clouds of smoke
Into the pristine night sky.
A river runs red and sterile,
Oily, thick waters embellished
With mounds of ghastly froth.
Another giant fear mobile rolls off
The assembly line, roaring to life
On dirty petrochemicals.
A few well-fed magnates
Conveniently forget their grandchildren
Have to live on this planet too.
Not knowing
What to do next but
Forging forth
Without hesitation,
Leaving space for
Anything that might
Come along,
Welcoming everything,
No arbitrary constraints,
All things possible.
