Build a tidy family,
Secrets and appearances,
Oaths and promises.
Don’t tell what happened,
Never betray this to
Anyone, anywhere, anytime.
A nest lined with falsity,
Hidden from street view
Behind impenetrable
Curtain of scrubbed cheeriness,
Exemplary, faithful, guiltless,
Eternal fear, pressure.
A sublime, magnificent chronicle of
Inexorable change. Transcendent
Flourishing contraposed with
Dispassionate destruction,
Prolonged repose, implausible rebirth.
Still visible evidence of
Primordial epochs, vast eras
Recorded for posterity to examine.
All for nought for many of
Absolute surety, forbidden to
Acknowledge that it just is,
As it always has been, will be.
Let us enjoy it while we can,
An impossibly grand gift of
Improbability and chance.
He makes an offhand
Remark about someone’s race,
Not giving it much thought
And well in keeping with
The rest of his consistently
Intolerant outlook on many
Things, punctuated by a
Self-serving qualification
About how he accepts all people,
And how he’s so moderate,
Civilized, enlightened,
Completely unaware that
The only difference between
Him and the monsters
Is a matter of degree.
Everything is soft,
Kind, supportive, creative,
Encouraging, empathic
In this place,
No harsh words or
Injurious reprimands,
Judgments meted out with
No regard for easily
Bruised psyches.
It is here we dare
To be ourselves.
All their best brains
Get together: politicians,
Business leaders, pundits,
Economists.
Toiling long hours,
Propelling propaganda,
Presenting a
United front.
It takes all their
Concerted effort to
Find new ways to
Exploit people.
Gleefully retiring
For a well-deserved
Drink at the
Usual establishment.
I don’t know how many
Ways I can say this.
A blank look,
Devoid of any understanding.
We’ve gone over this
A million times.
Another imperceptive retort,
Deflecting truth.
I can’t make someone see
What they won’t.
Silence.
Distance.
Tell me about how
That symbol doesn’t
Mean the subjugation
By force of an entire
People, how it has
Nothing to do with
Base, ugly instincts,
A miserable lust to
Break another human being
In order to enrich oneself,
To stand atop the
Inert carcass of an
Animal freshly slain,
To compensate for a
Festering inadequacy.
He sits down and
Immediately opens his
Huge mouth and says
Something ridiculously
Offensive about someone
He’s never met or
Something he knows
Absolutely nothing about,
A smug smile covering
His ordinary face,
Not an ounce of insight
Clouds his horizon.
He remembers sitting
In the living room
Absorbing the tireless
Rants of his father,
Most of his family and
Acquaintances, about those
People and what needed
To be done to them,
Interspersed with moments
Of unmitigated terror
Watching the hulking figure
Stumble toward him,
The hand striking his face
For no reason other than
Being in the vicinity,
The inescapable continuation
Of distorted tradition,
Words and blows creating
Impenetrable callouses.
