He’s furious about
The customer service agent
With an accent but
Not at all concerned about
Ravenous corporations
Taking advantage of human beings
In impoverished countries,
Paying them a pittance.
A strange bunch of
Confounded creatures we are,
Thinking only of our own needs,
Killing to amass more and
More meaningless stuff,
Smearing our inner
Hurts on each other,
Coalescing into tribes
Of beings who are just
As broken as we are.
How to solve all the
World’s problems:
Provide mental health
Services for everyone,
Starting in childhood and
Continuing regularly
Throughout adulthood,
In order to help people heal
So they are able to
Love themselves and others.
It arrives and elicits
Questions not easily
Resolved, a perplexing
Serving of doubt mixed
With tentative hope,
A wish answered,
Respite from hardship,
Please let it be,
As of this moment
It isn’t and
Most likely
Will never be.
Everything this day
Seems to be of outsized
Importance, immense
Consequence, no filter
In place, just raw,
Unadulterated displeasure.
She comes home
From school sobbing
And tells us that
Someone called her
A horrible name and
Everyone laughed
And pointed at her.
We hold her and
Comfort her as
Much as we can,
Memories of the
Same scenario
Roiling in our minds.
In order to hide
Who they really are
Deep inside, when
Outsiders aren’t around
To listen, everyone
Huddled around sharing
Hearty chuckles about
Some city-slicker or
Other person who
Is not like them,
They perpetuate stale
Myths about how they’re
The salt of the earth,
Misunderstood real folks,
Telling it how it is,
A worn ruse used to shift
The attention away from
What’s really going on.
In a city far away,
Countless mothers and fathers
Care for their children
And hope for love and
Warmth for all human beings
Wherever they may be.
I bend and bend
Until I’m almost
Broken, it won’t
Take much more to
Empty me of any
Hope I have left
That anyone cares
For someone
Like me.
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.
Once-distant sounds
Intensely reverberating,
Return of suspicion,
Hatred, contempt for the
Unfamiliar, lack of
Tolerance and curiosity,
Marching in lockstep to
The exhortations of
Another furious ringleader,
Vicious howls of recognition,
Slide into darkness.
