No matter how bad things get,
He will never capitulate,
Unable to let his guard down,
Admit wrongdoing,
Change direction.
Everything is a loss in
The land of broken victors.
People come and go,
Fouled by his egotism,
An unrepentant smile
Betrays his narcissism.
Alone at the end of his days,
He’s still glad he won.
All it takes is
One simple thing to
Incur her wrath—
The temerity to
Not follow her commands.
Mortally wounded,
She viciously lashes out at
Her perceived enemy.
It’s been this way for
As long as she can remember,
And she does nothing
To change it,
That would require insight,
Vulnerability.
Vastly overestimating
How much his success is
Due to ability or industry
Versus chance,
A blip in time made
Possible by circumstance.
Rhapsodizing at length about
Nothing, everything,
The sound of his voice
Reassuring him that
His pronouncements carry
Some kind of special weight,
That he’s smarter than the rest,
Dismissing anything
That threatens his
Engorged ego.
A pasted-on smile
Obscures dark bile
Built up over generations of
Harshness and abuse.
Now, unable to feel,
She expends all her energy
Repeating the cycle,
Destroying people to amass things,
Hoarding as much stuff
As possible to compensate
For what’s missing although it
Doesn’t heal her pain.
She doesn’t know what else to do and
Refuses to change course,
Just like her forebears.
He’s fine with government programs
That help him and the people
He’s comfortable with,
Which excludes those who
Don’t look, think, and experience
The world like him.
Talking to friends,
He complains that those people
Have had a free ride for too long.
What’s he ever gotten,
Except for everything?
Shut up or I’ll
Give you something
To cry about.
That boy needs
Some sense
Knocked into him.
Innocence ripped
From terrified
Heart.
Eclipsing of
Kindness by
Brutality.
Scorched landscape
Devoid of
Hope.
She was raised to be a
Good girl, follow the rules,
Respect authority, answer
When called, smile when
Addressed, defer when
Pressed, put others first.
She met a familiar young
Man who swept her
Off her feet, told her
What to do and when to do it.
Her conditioning complete,
A life of smiling subservience.
At the pinnacle of success,
No other position higher in his field,
An unparalleled opportunity to
Make a huge difference
In the lives of people
Who are enduring the same
Slights he experienced,
He looks the other way,
Choosing instead to
Join his oppressors,
Making the lives of millions
Much more difficult,
Forgetting the chance he was given.
