They get together and their
Collective brainpower
Devises an outmoded
Way of dealing with the
Matter at hand,
Favoring division,
Eliminating communication and
Any chance to fix anything,
An approach learned in places
Where people don’t know
How to talk about things.
People who don’t
Believe in
Helping people,
Put in charge of programs
That are supposed
To help people.
It’s more than difficult
To reconcile how he treated
Us most of the year,
Keeping us in fear of when
His latest rage would cruelly
Descend upon us, and who
Would bear the brunt,
Keeping a watchful eye,
Avoiding anything that might
Set him off, and the peculiar
Joy he took in festooning the
House with lights during
The holiday season.
So utterly soaked in
His belief system,
He is unable to see
Anything other than what
He’s been told to,
An adherent doing
What’s asked of him,
Not really liking it
But unable to change course,
Complete obedience the
Only approved choice,
Openness and curiosity
Not even on the menu,
He can barely even remember
What it was like to
Be himself, and change
No longer calls.
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.
