Sadism personified,
Culture of barbarism,
Fear, cruelty,
Casual violence.
Self-perpetuating system,
Commend bad behavior,
Promote inhumanity,
Celebrate malice.
Respond to everything
With brutality,
Pledge fealty to
Mercilessness.
No room for debate,
Mind made up beforehand.
Unrelentingly imposed
Hierarchy – a few on top,
Most on the bottom.
Homogeneity of belief,
Indoctrinated from birth,
Perpetuated by self-interested
Megalomaniacs unwilling to
Consider other perspectives,
Their version of the truth
Absolute, indisputable.
Fabricate the doctrine,
Tighten the yoke around
Subservient subjects,
Keep them in the dark,
The malleable uninformed.
Cavalierly excuses himself
When she deferentially
Asks for help for her family.
A rigged game dependent on
Her subservience and
Fear of merciless reprisal.
Surviving day to day
On the fringes of a
Community that scorns her,
Demeans her very existence,
Considers her less than a person.
Spoiled starched gentlemen,
Primped wilting ladies,
An air of contrived civility
Masks a ruthless
Disregard for humanity.
Reposing in fortified edifice
Overlooking tattered hovels,
Broken dreams that never
Took flight.
Counting his earnings
From the sweat of
Indentured
Beings.
Surveying his lands,
Faceless toiling peasantry,
Noble tradition reverberating
In the present.
They say it’s
Not about race,
But it is.
They say it’s
Not about bigotry,
But it is.
They say it’s
Not about prejudice,
But it is.
Let’s keep it
The way it’s always been,
Advantage us – scarcity you,
We get all the stuff,
You get meager scraps.
Let’s sit smugly on our porches,
Exchanging phony, chummy banter,
One-upping each other,
Reliving past glories.
Not a trouble-maker in sight,
They’re across the tracks
Where they belong.
Neatly manicured lawns,
Freshly painted homes,
Spurious smiles pasted on
Stiff wax faces,
Underplayed horror stories.
Making unilateral decisions
Based on self-serving,
Intentionally, maliciously
Skewed information without
The slightest bit of
Awareness or concern for
Fact or fairness,
A system that prizes
Conformity, obedience.
Dead faces executing orders,
Unconcerned, unfeeling.
Happy family home,
Place of calm and solace.
Verdant yard where
Small children play,
Exploring a world of
Limitless wonder.
Humble parcel of land
Unanticipatedly becomes
Exponentially more valuable for
What rests below it.
New player in town
Swaggers in – unambiguously
Asserts its presence.
No questions allowed,
Genuflect to the will of
The cold-blooded conglomerate.
Pockets to be filled,
People to dispossess.
It’s always so great when everyone
In the group falls in line, goes with
The program, follows the rules,
Laughs at the same jokes,
Talks about familiar topics,
Understands the same references.
A group of high school students
Eyeing each other, clamoring to
Be heard, preening, posing, straining to
Get along until one word, a look,
A perception, pierces fragile skin.
Cracks appear, filled with hurts.
