He still remembers the
Dark outline above him,
His mother by the door,
As he was mercilessly
Lashed for some minor,
Random infraction.
Barely making it through
High school, too many
Anxieties roiling through
His mind, he vows to
Do something so others don’t
Have to go through what he did.
He follows a career path that
Puts him in a position of
Authority and power; he feels
It course through his system,
The ability to control others,
Punish with impunity.
They know that suffering
People are rendered much
More docile when their attention
Is diverted by keeping
Them continually entertained.
If they’re staring at screens
All day, they won’t have the
Time to look behind the curtain
And realize they’ve been
Deliberately mislead.
Compliance encouraged through
Diversion, careful redirection
Of pain and passion,
Numbing thought and activity,
Uprising neutralized.
Sitting on a bench
In the middle of
A bustling park,
He spots a friend
Across the way,
Then remembers
What happened.
It arrives innocuously,
At first seeming
Like no big deal.
It soon becomes much more
Trouble than it merits,
Unrequested complexity.
It collapses spectacularly,
A victim of its own
Unwieldiness.
It’s not so hard to become a
Failed state, just make sure
That those who are in power
Don’t care a whit for the
Most vulnerable in society or
Anyone who didn’t have the
Benefit of being born into
Privilege. Systematically
Weaken vital institutions
That actually help regular
People and then screech about
How government doesn’t work.
Do everything in your power
To make sure nothing functions
For anyone but the rich and
That the less fortunate are
Methodically expressed like
Ripe grapes, their juices
Flowing into bulging coffers
While smug swindlers fly to
Some far-away vacation paradise.
Another preventable tragedy
Shocks decency, and they all
Stand around, hands sullied,
Complicit in this constant
Violence they pretend is
Senseless but that has
Deep roots in their soiled
Thoughts and actions,
Damaged psyches unhealed,
Aggressive greed,
Retention of power
More important than
The lives of human beings.
From a place of peace,
It appears as if some
Kind of psychoses has
Taken hold where amity
Is dismissed in favor of
Base instinct, a
Miasma of fear and hate
Simmering just below
Explosion, hallucination
Induced by unhealed pain,
Dearth of understanding,
Absence of love,
Scarcity of courage.
Awful people covering
For others like them,
A putrid syndicate of
Craven aristocrats,
Defending what they’ve
Always been told is
Rightfully theirs.
It’s not out of the question
To envision our world as a
Place where human beings care for
Instead of kill each other,
Though certain misanthropes
Who profit from misery
Would certainly disagree,
All that is required is
Treating all people
As the rare and valuable
Gifts they are and letting go of
The traditional nonsense about
Being somehow different or
In competition with one another.
