So traumatized by them;
He identifies with
His tormentors and inflicts
Upon others the same
Horrors he endured.
A bitter cycle of hurt
Unnecessarily perpetuated,
Ignoring myriad alternatives,
Familiarity over healing.
She’s really upset
Because she’s had
Everything handed to her
And, this time, things
Didn’t work out the way
She had come to expect.
She’s adamant someone else
Got the type of break
That was always given to her.
Her parents support
Their little princess,
They’ll find a way
To make sure she
Gets what she wants.
Even when she
Followed all the rules,
Jumped through all the hoops,
Adhered to all the social norms,
Reached the pinnacle
Of her profession,
Became an exemplary
Member of the community,
Did all the right things,
She was still judged
By the color of her skin.
With preternaturally
Acute perception,
They discern vulnerability
And descend wantonly
Upon the distress,
Promising solace,
Delivering misery,
Sucking the life out of
Everything they touch.
Satiated, they move on
To the next victim.
Fabricating an elaborate
Fiction about how the
Very people they’re
Mistreating are somehow
The oppressors, a weak
Justification for their own
Reprehensible actions,
Constantly compensating,
Contriving comfort by
Projecting their own
Offenses on the objects of
Their despotism while
Claiming victimhood.
In line at the food bank,
Taught faces looking downward,
Thinking of a time when a
Day’s work paid the bills,
Put food on the table,
Allowed for a vacation.
Dreams swallowed whole by
Ravenous corporations and
Those who give them the
Power to do anything they want.
Beneath all the
Deceptive rhetoric about
Protecting this or
Morality that,
There is a fervent
Desire to control women,
Keep them unequal,
Subservient,
In their place,
Catering to the every
Whim of their oppressors.
We are much better than
Allowing children to starve,
Condemning people to die from
Lack of affordable health care,
Cheering on a frontier-town
Code of conduct,
Relishing a total lack of empathy
For fellow citizens,
Delivering every break to
People who don’t need them,
Withholding opportunity from
Others deemed unworthy,
Shunning the vulnerable,
Tolerating hatred and bigotry,
Building a society that exalts
Cruelty as it staggers backward.
He’s never been called
A derogatory name because
Of what he looks like or
Where he was born.
The encroachment of these
Strangers makes him really
Uneasy, might have to
Move to another neighborhood.
Furious that they come in
And take away everything
That’s rightfully his,
The arrogance of privilege.
