poems about power

Quality

Row after row of
Rattling machines,
She sits alone
Surrounded by many
Others just like her,
No talking permitted,
Mind-numbing repetition
Wearing down her
Brain – hands – dignity,
Cacophonous clattering
Claiming her hearing.
Day in, day out,
Dawn to dusk,
Under constant scrutiny,
Quality control,
Not quality of life.
A continent away,
A woman in an upscale store
Chatters happily
About her purchase.

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Unconscious

Of all the things
He could be doing,
He chooses the one
That hurts people.

Unfeeling,
Driven only by an
Unconscious need
For supremacy.

No joy around here,
Only hardness and pain,
Violence and horror,
Absence of light.

Extortion

Fealty to shareholders.
Soap bar downsized —
Toilet paper smaller —
Every product and
Container carefully
Engineered to extract
Maximum profit from
Struggling saps.
Food escalating,
Power bills astronomical,
Wireless service exorbitant,
Internet prohibitive,
Gasoline extreme.
Extortion at every turn,
Consumers at the mercy of
Soulless marketers,
Profit-churning monsters.

Any Questions?

Don’t agree with the rules?
Tough.
Don’t like the hours?
Deal with it.
Low pay?
Nobody’s telling you to stay.
No time off?
Work waits for no one.
No benefits?
That’s not our problem.
No bargaining rights?
There’s plenty of people
Who would be happy
To have your job.
Any questions?

Pandering

Impenetrable block,
Reason need not apply,
Dysfunction supreme.

Pandering to bullies,
Ripping lunch money away
From the weak kids.

Cavalierly upending the table,
Food flying everywhere,
Nobody was hungry anyway.

Disrobe and drive home to
Plastic families,
Untreated pathologies.

Who Matters

The rage arising
From not having a voice,
Being denied the
Dignity of sharing
What’s on one’s mind,
Participating as an equal
In the conversation,
Listened to,
Uninterrupted,
Treated as someone
Who matters.

Bastion

As if their circumstances
Were caused by some
Deficiency of character,
Some cultural proclivity
Leading to destitution.

Latent hatred masquerading
As fact, blanket statements
Smothering the light,
Assumptions based on
Equivocation, obfuscation.

Marginalization.
Keeping them in their place,
Where they belong,
Away from us in our
Bastion of cowardice.

Scarred

Cold indifference
Permeates the minds of legislators
Posing as conviction.
An insidious malady
Steeped in pain, fear, enmity,
Driving compassion away,
Replacing it with punishing policies
Harming hard-working citizens
Whose only mistake is
Lack of power.
Intense suspicion of government
Spawns initiatives
Gutting vital services
Leaving a desolate landscape,
A walled-in mansion surrounded
By a scarred wasteland.
Destitute souls walk aimlessly
Across the bleak landscape
For someone else’s anxieties.

Résumé

Never having been
In an inferior position,
He pontificates at length
About success, hard work,
Bootstraps, freedom.

Money earned through
Mettle, tenacity, inheritance.
Not a single day of struggle
In his résumé.
Martini swirling in pristine glass.

A study in self-gratification,
Narcissistic dullard,
Seeking validation only for himself,
A broken shell of unfeeling
Smuggery.