They set up a system
That limits certain people’s
Ability to succeed and
Then insult them by
Calling them lazy moochers.
They don’t understand
That myriad hard-working
People don’t succeed
Because they live in a
Country that won’t let them.
All they’ve known is
Privilege and success,
All they do is try to
Make sure nobody
Takes it from them.
They see her as
An existential threat,
This teenage girl
Whose only trespass is
Advocating for education
For all girls.
So terrified are they that
Women might have the ability
To think for themselves,
To assume positions of power,
That they do the only
Thing they know how to.
She survives the point-blank
Shot to her head, a heinous
Act of cowardice by
Gutless followers who fail to
Understand the resilience
Of the human spirit.
Extreme myopia,
A near-pathological
Inability to see,
Let alone understand,
Anyone else’s plight,
A dark tunnel excavated
From his own pain.
Lacking self-awareness,
He assumes that
Everyone else’s struggle
Is exactly like his,
That the same variables
Line up exactly
The same way.
Left in his wake,
A swath of agony,
Contorted beings
Crying out for help
That will never come,
The casualties of
Detached indifference.
Maudlin longings for
An idyllic past
When things were better
And everyone got along.
No need to worry about
Those other people
Who aren’t part of
The in group.
It’s always been this way,
Some people make it,
Some don’t, the way
It’s supposed to be.
How to educate our kids:
Woefully underfund
Public schools,
Because we don’t want
To pay taxes,
Then shake our heads
Disingenuously when
They fail and propose
Some half-baked measure
That siphons money away to
Unaccountable private companies,
Or, better yet, encourage
People to use vouchers
To enroll in private or
Sectarian institutions then
Declare emphatically that
We’re doing everything
We can to fix things…
Except properly
Funding the schools.
Two pictures side by side,
One of a beaming symbol of
Institutionalized power and
Subjugation, the other of
A hapless victim of circumstance.
A system set up to favor
Certain people, regardless of
Their actual merit, able to
Do anything they want to anyone
Who doesn’t bow to them.
Us versus them,
Keep them out of our neighborhoods,
Away from our wives and children,
Safely rounded up in their
Crumbling tenements.
There is a moment when,
Under extreme duress,
His resilience leaves him,
Heart stops feeling,
Loses his humanity,
Is no longer able to
Relate to other beings with
Empathy and compassion.
The remainder of his journey
Is consumed by rage and
A compulsion to make sure
Nobody else enjoys life.
Racism.
The room grows quiet, then defensive, then hostile.
Immaturely unable to face the truth,
Reflect on wrongdoings,
Consider truth and reconciliation.
No change occurs
Without admitting past violations.
A tepid condemnation
Interwoven with further attacks,
Utter lack of decency.
Craven swindlers
Showing their hands,
Driven by the fear that
People who don’t
Look like them and their peers
Will take over and
Make them pay for their
Transgressions,
The dread that keeps all
Illicit conquerors,
Subjugators,
Awake at night.
