poems about brokenness

Family Values

He confides,
With great earnestness,
To the crowd,
That he’s for family values,
And by that he means the
Old-fashioned,
Tried and true,
Time-tested morals of
Exemplars deeply
Steeped in hypocrisy and
Callousness, effortlessly
Trampling over anyone who
Doesn’t believe in their
Particular brand of
Tribal decree,
A narrowing of scope,
Collapsing heart.

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On Display

Arms crossed,
Scrunched face,
Pouty lip,
Poor little tycoon
Sulks theatrically,
Explodes indignantly,
Threatens to withhold
Contrived largesse,
A normally selfless gesture
Becomes just another
Bargaining chip.
It’s all fine and dandy
When you can do it
Without being discovered,
But quite another when
Your modus operandi and
Shriveled heart
Are starkly on display,
Then you have to face
What kind of person
You’ve become,
It still doesn’t matter,
You’ve been through it before,
It’s how you got here.

Survival of the Fittest

It was done to me,
So I’m going to
Do it to others.
I didn’t have it easy,
I had to fight for
Everything I’ve got.
I pulled myself up
By the bootstraps,
I shouldn’t have to
Support anyone else,
They’re all lazy,
I’m hard working,
They don’t deserve
Success like I do.
Let them shrivel
On the vine if they
Can’t figure it out,
It’s survival of
The fittest.

Manageable

As with most of the
People she surrounded
Herself with, Samantha
Preferred to live on
The surface, stumbling
From one experience or
Heartache to another,
Leaving buried the more
Meaningful things that might
Lead to actual fulfillment,
Pretending everything
Was fine and manageable.

Once a Week

She comes to
His home
Once a week.

She cleans the
Toilets, washes
His clothes.

She vacuums and
Dusts everywhere,
Mops the floors.

Her ever-present
Smile is a
Welcome sight.

He interacts with
Her in a
Polite way.

Below the surface,
He disdains
Her kind.

Them

I don’t mind
Giving to others,
I’m a charitable person,
Taught well by my parents.
I know the difference between
Right and wrong,
I was brought up to
Help others
Less fortunate.
I’m always there for
My friends, family, colleagues,
But not them.

Ruptured

Rough,
Unyielding,
Insecure.

Something’s wrong,
Just below the surface,
Turmoil.

Outwardly rugged,
Inwardly mangled,
Ruptured.

Only violence here,
Ruthlessness,
Utter despair.

Growth

Obsessively feeding
Stockholders
At the expense of
Consumers, people,
Decency, everything.
Promise ever-increasing returns,
Keep earnings artificially high,
Nothing else matters.
Metastasizing abnormal growth,
Never content with enough.
A world gutted by a
Pathological need for
Wealth and status,
Nourishing the few
Who can buy shares and
Their pushers.
Illusions vanish,
Leeches abscond.