poems about power

As Far as She’s Concerned

Raised by nannies,
Occasional, stilted interactions
With figurehead parents
Pass for affection.
Sent off to boarding school,
Fed a steady diet of
Impersonal, cold axioms
Rendering her
Unable to feel a kinship
With people, animals, situations.
Never taught how to bond
With anything other than
A vague sense of superiority,
Underlying emptiness.
Self-contained – self-centered,
Isolated from reality,
Disconnected from others,
No need to consider them,
Let alone have any contact.
They become an afterthought,
Unimportant, inhuman,
Unworthy of any attention or help.
After all, she got none,
As far as she’s concerned.

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There Will Be a Day

There will be a day when you can’t sing.
There will be a day when you can’t dance.
You have your whole future ahead of you.
Do it while you can.
Don’t wait until it’s too late.

The cliches landed on her head with
No effect. She had made up her mind.
It was him or nothing.
True love would prevail and nourish them.
If times got tough, they always had each other.

She walked through the doorway and into the
Remainder of her life. Expectations high,
Realities ambiguous. With her, the object of
Her affection and the promise that
All would be well.

Jack Up

Complete lack of
Pretense,
No longer hiding —
No need to —
The new normal.
Flagrantly
Slash the size of
Vital goods,
Cheapen products until
Barely usable,
Downsize until a
Dozen means six —
Or less.
Eliminate unnecessary
Frills that used to
Be part of the deal.
People will bellyache for
A while, but their
Memories are short.
Oh yes, one more thing…
Remember to jack up
The price.

Conserving

Obsessed with conserving…
Conserving his own money,
Conserving his own beliefs,
Conserving his own rights,
His own territory,
His own race,
His own language,
Own social circle,
Own music.
Conserving his own idealized,
Whitewashed version of what the
Country looked like in the 1950s,
When everything was perfect and
There were no problems with
Uppity people trying to upset
The established order.
Everyone stayed in their place,
Knew what was expected.
You took care of your neighbors,
Kept undesirables out,
A perfect, homogeneous community,
Encircling some, excluding the rest.

Ardent Aspiration

His ardent aspiration
Is to belong to
The same clique that
Looks down on and oppresses
People like him,
A desperate yearning
To be part of a perceived
Power structure,
Identifying with a group
That considers him expendable.

Mugging

Family of four,
Two working parents,
Each has two jobs —
Minimum wage,
Walk through the doors of a
Den of institutionalized mugging.
A clerk behind
Bulletproof glass
Perfunctorily walks them
Through the lawful robbery
Of their car,
A five-hundred dollar
Noose that quickly,
Mercilessly grows tighter.
Paperwork hastily completed,
A sleazy handshake and smile,
A saga dreadfully familiar.
Not long thereafter,
In the middle of the night,
A tow truck pulls up.

Anesthetized

Hardened heart – unwhole –
Hoarding all his stuff,
The kid in the sandbox who won’t
Share his toys,
Hunkering down —
Frowning uncutely,
All the other kids
Uncomfortable.

Grows up,
No change – same story.
Lack of introspection
Cultivating circle of harshness,
Advancing suffering.
Bully in a suit,
Lifeless face,
Anesthetized eyes.

Sole Objective

Under the pretense of
Tradition,
They support and perpetuate
The subjugation of
Vulnerable people,
Power being the sole objective,
Not any made-up story of
Adhering to long-standing custom,
Disgraceful lust for
Domination and superiority.

Great Equalizer

Dismantle
Great equalizer,
Critically wound the
Promise of opportunity,
Regardless of station.
Under the guise of
Reform, merit, competition,
Eviscerate it,
Weaken its foundation
Piece by piece.
Democracy deflated,
Increasing divide,
Advantaged versus unprivileged.
Self-perpetuating inferno,
Burgeoning underclass.