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.
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.
High school online,
The popular kids
Preening and primping,
Everyone else trying
To be like them even though
None of it matters.
People left out, made fun of.
Pretending meaningless relationships
Mean something.
She leaves, inviting everyone
To contact her directly,
No one does.
A group of
Friends at a
Favorite restaurant.
One of them
Says something rude
To the waiter.
No one says
Anything,
Looking away instead.
He climbs on a
Trash pile,
The only life he’s
Ever known,
On the outskirts of
A city where
Other people
Make plans
To keep him
Exactly where he is
In perpetuity.
So, this is how it goes
In this economic construct,
Companies so powerful they can
Do whatever they want to
Whomever they wish,
Without fear of repercussion,
Complete impunity,
Absolute lack of remorse.
She had a hard time understanding
Where his cruelty came from,
Until she met his family:
An ominous group of harsh
Belittlers who extolled the
Virtues of survival of the fittest,
Mercilessly putting each other down
To prove who was king,
Roughhousing and competition
Behavioral staples – requirements,
Women shown their place in the kitchen,
Encouraged to keep quiet
About important stuff,
Attitudes formed through
Severe indoctrination –
Ubiquitous punishment.
Sure, there was some perfunctory
Level of compassion for people
They knew personally, offset by
A scorching empathy desert
For anyone they considered other,
Which meant pretty much everyone,
Especially foreigners,
Freeloaders and softies.
That’s why she bid him goodbye,
A person of her nature could
Only take so much horror.
He didn’t amass his
Fortune alone, although
He’ll tell you he did,
The sightlessness of
Privilege being what it is,
All he really did was
Be born a certain hue to
A family with the means
To support his endeavors,
A society that was set
Up to favor people like him,
Laws that protected and
Favored his interests while
Keeping down the competition
He claims he loves.
