They’ve been given
Permission to be as
Loutish as they want,
Belittling anyone who
Doesn’t agree with them,
Gaining validation from
Someone with no restraint,
Who doesn’t care for
Anyone but himself.
Only the victors matter.
If you don’t win
You’re a loser.
Expendable,
Ignorable,
Worthless.
You either
Make it or
You don’t.
It’s up to you.
We’ll make sure
You get no help.
Formidable castles
Surrounded by
Afterthoughts.
Please stop telling me
Who I am, what I need
To be doing, and how
I should do it.
Those decisions are best
Left to me, the person
Most affected by purposelessly
Following well-meaning but
Entirely ill-suited advice;
I’ll fare much better when
You let me find my own answers.
Heightened expectations,
Consistent disillusion
Exacerbated by impatience.
Waiting becomes a familiar,
Unwanted companion.
So many other things to
Be done, dreams to be
Fulfilled, moments of joy,
Return to calmness.
Publicly utter a
Discriminatory
Epithet.
Play the bewildered
Victim when people of
Conscience notice.
Benefit from kindred spirits
Starting a funding campaign
To support your bigotry.
Keep moving forward
With great vigor
And disregard.
Never learn
Anything from your
Reprehensible actions.
Call yourself
A defender of
Righteousness.
There’s always that one
Individual who makes
Everyone else’s lives
Miserable, who has such a
Limited understanding of
Where he ends and others begin
That he tramples on all toes
In an unpleasant strut of
Unconscious self-centeredness,
Trapped in his own
Inflamed harshness.
Once in a while,
Leave the lights and excitement,
Take the obligatory trip
To a sad town where
Sad people tell sad stories about
Things that never happened.
Beautiful refined people
Redolent with art and culture,
Masters of finance,
Builders of empire.
Landing on distant shores,
Marching rows of
Shackled souls into
Loathsome holds.
Obscene wealth
Accumulated on the
Scarred backs of
The unfortunate.
A familiar scene
Repeated with startling
Regularity.
One person,
Riddled with fear,
Discriminates against another.
The next step is to
Cry foul and insist the
Victim is the perpetrator.
Building a house of
Maudlin self-pity,
Pretending they’re persecuted.
Maiming others
With impunity by
Claiming self-defense.
