poems about brokenness

Point

At what point
Did we lose it,
The ability to
Care for someone
We don’t know and have
No vested interest in?
How did we become
A people who aren’t
Moved by the suffering
Of a child or the
Struggles of a neighbor?
Benevolence supplanted by
Angry faces creased
With bitterness and
Disappointment.
Disgruntled brutes
Regretting unfulfilled lives,
Meaningless existences,
Spewing hatred
Instead of love.

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Without Questioning

Nobody talks about anything
Around here,
It’s not allowed.
Follow the rules
Without questioning,
Keep your thoughts to yourself,
Set aside any critical thinking.
A sullen figure sits in a chair
Devising random ways of
Imposing arbitrary whims
That never keep him safe.

Enforcers

Fed up with the system,
Joins some friends,
Protests against
Leviathans swallowing
Human beings whole.

His head
Driven into the ground
By polished boot,
Shielded enforcers of
Boardroom decisions.

One man, such a
Threat to
Deception perpetrated
By carnivorous
Overlords.

Orbit

He chokes up when
The flag appears or
A certain maudlin song plays,
Chauvinism welling inside him,
Wiping away unrelated tears,
Experiencing feelings
Conspicuously absent
When he’s administering
Merciless beatings
To the victims in his orbit.

Appalling

It’s appalling
That there are so many
Individuals in the richest
Country on Earth who
Couldn’t care less if
A human being is homeless,
A child doesn’t have
Enough to eat,
A person is crushed
By a giant corporation,
Or someone dies due to lack of
Critical health care;
This is not the type of
Thinking that makes
Nations great.

Sham

Holding them hostage,
Preying on their greatest fears,
Providing facile answers
To existential questions,
Threatening terrible punishment
Should they even think about
Straying from under his
Permanent watch.
A con man’s pitch
Delivered by a sociopath,
Separating earnest rubes
With dark sides
From their money
Without them even knowing,
A wink, homily, sham.

Monotone

A dull monotone
Reciting rote stories
Of past glories,
Young men who
Made everyone proud
In the most superficial ways,
And all those who followed
Them unquestioningly.
Bored students staring into
The distance,
Force fed the same tired
Propaganda lines about
False courage,
Hollow achievement,
Maintaining the status quo,
Dreaming in black and white.

Polite Visages

An insistently earnest group meets in an
Out-of-the-way restaurant favored by
Locals. Introductions completed,
Pleasantries exchanged, jokes told,
Moments of public reverie
Performed, fealty reinforced.

A bare winter light wilts in,
Penumbra permeates.
Conversation on approved topics.
Polite visages veiling discomfort,
Dreams subsumed, opinions ingrained,
Social conventions observed at all costs.

Superior

Words brandished to
Denigrate,
Castigate,
Eviscerate,
Leave for dead.
Worry not about
Lazy,
Flawed,
Common,
Not part of the clique,
Malcontents.
We made it because of
Our mettle,
Exceptional work ethic,
Intelligence.
They languish in dependent
Mediocrity,
No match for
Superior genes.