Something must have
Happened to close his mind,
Rendering him unable to
Understand suffering.
Innocence and hope
Dashed at a vulnerable age,
When life should
Be rosy.
A heart drained of its
Ability to feel,
Vitriol replacing
Kindness.
The lone frontiersman
Who lives by his
Sheer grit and determination,
Fending for himself
Against all odds,
Not beholden to anyone,
A rugged individualist
Who kowtows to no one,
Takes care of himself
And his own and never
Asks for outside help,
An outdated construct
Invoked to undermine
Social conscience,
The greater good,
Civilized society.
Mom would always
Look stoically into
The distance as
We stood in line
To get that week’s
Staples, handed to
Us in bags, provided
By people we never met
But who had hearts
Able to feel for others
Who might not have
The same opportunities
As them or who are
Where they once were.
As disasters both
Natural and man-made
Tear at the landscape,
One wonders whether
They still adhere to their
Premise that charities can
Take care of everything,
Even though it’s nonsensical to
Believe that people would give
Billions upon billions,
Over and over,
To help those ravaged by misfortune,
But there’s no way to
Talk them out of their misguided
Fantasies rooted in pessimistic
Dogma rather than reality.
Lounging in air-conditioned
Comfort, Flipping absent-mindedly
Through hundreds of TV channels,
She bemoans the fact that
Everything is so boring,
That there’s nothing to do in this
Swanky neighborhood, that
They’ve gone to all the restaurants,
Shopped at all the stores,
Attended every gala,
Socialized with all the right people, and
Never for one second thought about
The little girl sitting in a
Sweltering shanty, wondering if
She’ll have anything to eat today.
One outrage after
Another.
No limit to their
Depravity.
Reveling in
Cruelty.
Decency
Upended.
Self-interest
Supreme.
Not a second thought
About the suffering.
The regime issues
Carefully crafted lies,
Methodically shaping
The narrative,
Mocking any dissent,
Labeling the truth unreliable.
To the uninitiated,
Or those who have an
Inclination toward
Absolutism, it all
Seems perfectly normal,
Justified, righteous,
Comfortably rigid,
A strongman lying,
Creating an unreal reality
To circumvent the rule of law.
Looking through the window
He sees only war, perceiving
Everything as a battle,
As something to be won,
An adversary to be exterminated.
“When something bad is
Lurking around every corner,
Ready to attack you,
You have to hit first,”
He mutters automatically.
The world viewed as a dangerous place,
Where everyone is an enemy
Who must be engaged with violence,
Internal turmoil played out in public,
Only one direction to go in.
It’s a symbol of
Our history which,
Although we don’t
Say it out loud,
Is really based on
Fighting for the right
To enslave human beings
To make more money,
A fair arrangement,
In our dead hearts.
