poems about society

Acceptable

At a lunch gathering
With some close friends,
She strenuously insists
That she’s not a feminist,
Then talks passionately
About how women should
Be paid the same as men
And how there shouldn’t be
A glass ceiling or any type of
Discrimination against
Anyone based on gender.
Everyone should have
The same rights, she says
To herself, remembering the
Occasions when leering,
Incompetent people
Made her life difficult
Just because it was
Socially acceptable.
She wants to make sure that
Her daughters have an easier
Time than she did.

Get the Poetry Collection
Unconventional Being - Minimalist Poetry Book by Guy Farmer

Readers around the world have found pieces of themselves in these poems. Discover the collection.

Get Your Copy on Amazon

Unremarkable

Normal, average,
Middling, standard,
Tolerable, humdrum,
Garden variety mediocrity.

Common tyrants
Trampling promise.
Dime a dozen
Sullen orthodoxy

Hit me with your
Unexceptional best,
Banal executioners,
Unremarkable.

Dystopia

It’s not so much
That it can’t happen
But rather that it
Is happening one
Small increment
At a time.

A right taken away
Here and there,
Presented as
Personal freedom,
Establishing servitude
And fealty.

The state as father,
Dictatorial minds
Subduing the masses,
A grim authoritarian
Dystopia regretted
After the fact.

Following

Startlingly conventional,
Seeking simple answers to
Complex questions,
Ambiguity to be avoided
At all costs.

Aggressive, sneering
At anyone who doesn’t
Agree with him,
Projecting unresolved
Rage on bystanders.

Rigid, uncreative,
Profoundly unfulfilled,
Chasing the rush
That comes from
Following the herd.

As Angry People Do

A group of angry people met in a room,
Enraged because the beliefs they so
Readily, joyously, ruthlessly
Imposed on others were no longer
Popular; exposed as petty,
Disingenuous, destructive.

They machinated at length,
What to do about this conundrum.
The solution arrived in a flash of
Inspiration: Keep doing the same
Things that got them here.
A group of angry people stayed
Angry as angry people do.

Rows of Houses

Surveying the rows of houses,
I am struck by their drab
Sameness, a kind of uniform
Dilapidation rendered stark
By a tepid sun. Inside,
Dreams die by the thousands.

Dissimilarity

The harrowing
Uncertainty begins,
More of a screaming,
Piercing pain that won’t
Go away no matter how
Many aspirins one takes.

Trying to ignore it,
Hoping it will go away,
Pretending it’s not going to happen
When it inevitably will,
A return to different times,
Shocking dissimilarity.

Unreachable minds,
Roiling with contempt and
Inordinate callousness.
They will never
Dig deep enough
To tell us why.

Diversions

The two pass on the
Street in front of a
Bank, neither sees the
Other, one on her way
To an assembly line
Job, the other entering
The building and walking
Into a well-appointed
Office with a plaque on
The door indicating his
Special title, his
Exceptional position in
Society because of all
The money he lords over and
Others don’t. He chuckles
With a colleague about
Haves and have nots,
Winners and losers,
Survival of the fittest,
Ruling class diversions.

Improprieties

Multi-tentacled monster,
Insatiable appetite for
Culpatory knowledge.
Pursue with great vigor,
Upend life,
Intimidate with threats of
Dire consequences,
Frame as a renegade
Divulger of secrets,
A craven menace.
Nothing stops the
Gurgling heart of
Fear-riddled sickness
Zealously guarding
Improprieties.