Holding them hostage,
Preying on their greatest fears,
Providing facile answers
To existential questions,
Threatening terrible punishment
Should they even think about
Straying from under his
Permanent watch.
A con man’s pitch
Delivered by a sociopath,
Separating earnest rubes
With dark sides
From their money
Without them even knowing,
A wink, homily, sham.
Prerequisites,
Restrictions,
Expectations,
Conformity.
Be like us,
Embrace our culture,
Don’t deviate from the norm,
Love all the same things,
Swear allegiance,
Adhere to the rules.
Destroy subversives,
Kill free thought,
Denigrate diversity,
Eradicate critical thinking.
A lovely stroll down
The primrose path to fascism.
They got their first
Flushing toilet
(They formerly had to
Lug buckets of water
To the bathroom)
Such an accomplishment,
Proof of progress enjoyed
By a large family
Surviving on the income
From their small business.
Many years later,
The whole neighborhood
Is developed.
They have paved roads,
Mostly reliable electricity,
But they still remember
When they lived almost
As squatters in a
Brick structure they built
With their own hands,
And the day they were
Recognized as people.
A dull monotone
Reciting rote stories
Of past glories,
Young men who
Made everyone proud
In the most superficial ways,
And all those who followed
Them unquestioningly.
Bored students staring into
The distance,
Force fed the same tired
Propaganda lines about
False courage,
Hollow achievement,
Maintaining the status quo,
Dreaming in black and white.
An insistently earnest group meets in an
Out-of-the-way restaurant favored by
Locals. Introductions completed,
Pleasantries exchanged, jokes told,
Moments of public reverie
Performed, fealty reinforced.
A bare winter light wilts in,
Penumbra permeates.
Conversation on approved topics.
Polite visages veiling discomfort,
Dreams subsumed, opinions ingrained,
Social conventions observed at all costs.
Another denied claim.
On the other end,
Someone doesn’t get
The treatment and medication
They desperately need.
Death is but an abstraction
In this office,
A mirage in the distance,
Not worth thinking about.
She goes home
At the end of the day,
Lives her life
With the money she’s made,
Telling herself it’s okay.
Words brandished to
Denigrate,
Castigate,
Eviscerate,
Leave for dead.
Worry not about
Lazy,
Flawed,
Common,
Not part of the clique,
Malcontents.
We made it because of
Our mettle,
Exceptional work ethic,
Intelligence.
They languish in dependent
Mediocrity,
No match for
Superior genes.
An authoritarian regime
Can’t seize power without supporters,
Fearful creatures clutching onto
Fever dreams of a past that never existed,
Exuding cruelty,
Lacking compassion,
Celebrating a terrifying inability to
Feel anything, for anyone, at any time,
Dullards hypnotized by a
Big Daddy promising a golden age
Where they can once again
Step on everyone else’s neck.
There is something
Unsettling about
How he looks at people,
A distant, empty gaze
Betraying someone who
Isn’t feeling all that
Settled inside but is
Trying to project
Self-assurance.
He goes about his
Business as if nothing
Is wrong, projecting
Copious confidence until
He inevitably detonates.
