Such a lovely family portrait,
Grandfather and Grandmother
With their arms around their
Beloved grandchildren,
Smiles beaming but not
Luminously enough to mask
What the family business
Does to human beings,
Darkness behind pretense.
Walking down the street
On the way to the store
One fine summer day,
He encounters an older
Woman who looks at him
With dread and hastily
Moves away from him
As he wonders what
Just happened, later
Realizing it was what
It has always been.
Never having endured
A single day of discrimination,
Or been treated differently solely
Because of how they look –
Deemed to be less than human –
Traded as a commodity
To enrich soulless captors,
They declare that all strife
Is over, deep historical,
Personal wounds glossed-over
In a single cavalier pronouncement,
The suffering of millions
Reduced to a sound bite
Promulgated by thoughtless louts.
He’s building a sumptuous
Penthouse appointed with
The most lavish details
And plush furnishings
For his surgically-enhanced wife
Who refuses to succumb
To the effects of aging
(Not that he hasn’t visited
Their favorite surgeon as well).
No expense is spared in
Building this magnificent
Showcase overlooking the ocean.
Once a month or so,
He tours the construction site,
Demanding that this or that
Be changed or noting that something
Isn’t quite to specifications
(A pastime his wife enjoys too).
The workers nod accommodatingly,
Finish another long shift, and
Go home to their shacks.
Fair faces sitting
Around a table
Jovially sharing a
Meal served by
Darker complexions.
Their ancestors
Ran the railroads,
Built industries,
Took advantage of
Hapless inhabitants.
Entrenched gentry
Favoring a certain
Type of look,
Lineage,
Connections.
Predetermined sentence,
Life begun with
Severe disadvantages,
Ongoing tragedy of
Limited opportunities.
Fear and misunderstanding
From so-called upstanding
Citizens whose actions
Condemn her to spend
Time staring out a
Small window at plain walls.
It was never going to
Be any other way,
Self-fulfilling prophecy,
Discarded from birth.
The so-called experts
Are baffled about why
Companies aren’t hiring,
Postulating that it’s because
The economy is still sluggish,
In spite of record profits.
CEOs whine that there’s
A lack of qualified
Candidates to fill the
Positions they have available.
In the warehouse,
Danny says they’re all
Full of hot air,
Everyone knows it’s because
The powers that be don’t want
To spend money to train
Anyone or pay them well,
They just make their
Current people work harder
And ride the gravy train.
She walks a half-hour
To the well,
Waiting her turn to
Lower a stained
Plastic bucket down
A hole to the
The brackish water
That will be in
That night’s soup.
She heads back,
Tilting to one side,
Looking down at
The garbage-strewn
Pathway, a dog
Scampering away.
They mean business and
Will not stop marching
Until their contemptible
Cravings are satisfied,
The urge for the next fix
Predictably – interminably
Beckoning in the distance.
Equality and fairness
Signify nothing,
Any hint of a thought
About helping anyone who
Has been felled by their
Machiavellian oversight
Is quickly ushered away.
The only goal here is
To gut the wounded creature
They disdain so much and
Lay its entrails at
The feet of their rulers.
