Galling.
The sheer magnitude of
His inability to
Admit responsibility.
No need to start
Now, he’s never had
To concede anything.
Appalling.
Sad.
Final.
Unable to see
The consequences,
Unwilling to do
Anything to lessen
The damage.
He looks the other way,
Even when faced
With shocking evidence
Of the anguish caused
By his actions,
Desperately
Avoiding introspection.
He’ll never know
What causes it all,
He’ll never try
To figure it out,
Everyone else will
Just have to suffer.
A brutally unpleasant chap
Raised in a poisonous family,
Doing horrible things.
It comes so naturally that
He’s lost count of all the
Unfortunate beings he’s destroyed.
Making life miserable
For as many people as possible
Evinces nary a shrug,
No remorse,
Not even for a moment,
Damage perpetuating devastation.
Getting help to be a better person
A completely laughable concept.
Perceiving his underling
As a threat,
He devises a scheme
To ease the interloper out
Through a series of
Skewed evaluations
Conducted by a perhaps
Unknowing lackey.
It works.
Absence of fingerprints,
Nobody higher up notices,
The object of his fear
Leaves shattered.
He smiles to himself,
Feeling much safer
For a moment.
A sudden hush
Interrupts the mirth,
Uncomfortable downward stares.
Beaming in his chair,
He revels in his obnoxiousness,
A well-honed ability
To annoy everyone around him.
That’ll show them,
He thinks to himself,
Every day a battle against
Nice people
Who care about the world
And each other.
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.
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?
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.
