poems about power

Corporations Don’t Care about People

Corporations don’t care
A whit about people,
All their energy focused on
Generating as much profit
As possible regardless of
How many are damaged,
Ripped off, cheated,
Hoodwinked by the small print,
Denied crucial recourse,
Underpaid in sweatshops.
I’m sure they would vigorously
Defend themselves with
The standard drivel about
How they’re the engine that
Drives free societies, or
How they give a few dollars
Here and there to some cause,
The same stale excuses
Pronounced with oily sincerity
While they find new ways
To squeeze another dollar
Out of human beings.

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Curfew

I’m not sure I fully
Understand why certain
People feel compelled to
Force their beliefs on others,
Insisting their way of
Looking at the world is best,
Censoring other perspectives,
Imposing curfew on divergent
Ideas that don’t fit
Their narrow outlook,
Forcing human beings into
Confining boxes,
Deeply uncomfortable with
Ambiguity and uncertainty,
Condemning anyone who isn’t
Like them, immersed in
Fear and judgment,
Even though it doesn’t
Have to be this way.

Conventional Obsession

If you look underneath
The false premises and
Sleazy justifications,
You’ll find the conventional
Obsession with putting
Women down because it
Makes small men feel more
Important, far easier
To step on someone than to
Share the world with them or
Go against your father who
Taught you insecurity and the
Fear of being exposed.

Lily Walks Home

Stepping off the bus,
Lily walks home
Past rusting cars,
Graffiti-covered walls,
Shuttered storefronts,
Garbage-strewn gutters,
To the doorway of
Her bleak building
Where there’s never a
Moment’s peace in the
Small apartment
She lives in.

Heirs to the Throne

Some will admit it or
Reveal themselves through
Coarse comments or actions,
Others keep it under wraps
Unless they’re around
Their peers, in which case
It’s a free for all of
Jovial denigration.
Underneath it all
The thing they’ve been told
Their entire lives,
That they’re the rightful
Heirs to the throne.

How to Be a Pompous Rich Person

How to be a pompous rich person:
Be at the right place
At the right time,
Then pretend your success
Is due to your
Exceptional clairvoyance,
Superior specialness,
Rare ability to
Toil harder than
The person washing your dishes
In the tony restaurants you frequent.
Also, look down
On human beings who haven’t
Had the same luck as you,
Say stuff about how they
Aren’t driven, and believe it,
After all, your
Flimsy self-worth and
Brittle facade
Depend on it.

Intention

It’s one thing
To oppose everything
And build your entire
Reason for being on
The premise that you’re
There to block the
Fabricated malfeasance of
An empirically well-meaning
Leader, but quite another
To find yourself in
Charge of things and
Prove beyond a shadow of
A doubt that you never
Knew how to govern or
Even had that intention.

No Qualms

He has no qualms
About letting children
Starve or succumb to
Illness, it’s a
Dog eat dog world
As far as he’s concerned,
And people have it
Coming according to
What he calls morality.

Noxious

One by one
They coalesce
Until they become
A noxious mass,
They follow
Each other into
The abyss,
Bringing everything
Else imaginable
Down with them,
Toxic cult of
Wretchedness.