At some level,
No doubt buried in
The deepest recesses
Of his psyche,
He realizes the words
Coming out of his mouth
Are hurtful.
Cold indifference,
All-consuming fear,
Learned at the
Receiving end of
Harsh punishment,
Propagated without
Conscious thought.
Every single answer on
A lovely tidy platter placed
Over a yawning chasm
Drawing every bit of matter
Toward its voracious mouth
Lined with sharp teeth and
Rampant uncertainties.
The stuff of life covered by
A gleaming lid promising
Complete absolution from
Experience, courage, joy.
Erudite clique meets
To devise the latest
Brilliant plan.
On the agenda:
Relentlessly eliminate
Critical programs.
Austere measures
Imposed regardless
Of outcomes.
Steady diet of
Scarcity,
Starvation.
Hobble it
Until it can’t
Do anything.
Such a lovely family portrait,
Grandfather and Grandmother
With their arms around their
Beloved grandchildren,
Smiles beaming but not
Luminously enough to mask
What the family business
Does to human beings,
Darkness behind pretense.
An arrangement where we
Have no choice but
To conform to survive,
Think of ourselves
In terms of a group,
Embrace tribalism,
Accept dysfunction
As normal,
Our view of ourselves
Filtered through the
Unmet needs of others,
Expected to
Perpetuate the debacle
Or be cast out.
They walk into the place
For the first time in
Many years, expecting the
Same feelings to wash
Over them: youth, excitement,
Spontaneity, life in
Bloom and effervescence;
They quickly realize you
Can’t recreate what was
Once there, and locales
Like this only welcome
You once before moving on.
Walking down the street
On the way to the store
One fine summer day,
He encounters an older
Woman who looks at him
With dread and hastily
Moves away from him
As he wonders what
Just happened, later
Realizing it was what
It has always been.
The imposition of will
Requires no thoughtfulness,
Just the compulsion to force
Someone else to be a person
They are not, to demand
Adherence to some arbitrary,
Ever-shifting whim, fealty
To the pouting child who
Wants his toy right now.
There came a time
When it was virtually
Impossible to have
Any kind of civil
Conversation with him,
All traces of humanity
And rationality had
Been surreptitiously
Extirpated from his mind,
Leaving only an angry shell.
Never having endured
A single day of discrimination,
Or been treated differently solely
Because of how they look –
Deemed to be less than human –
Traded as a commodity
To enrich soulless captors,
They declare that all strife
Is over, deep historical,
Personal wounds glossed-over
In a single cavalier pronouncement,
The suffering of millions
Reduced to a sound bite
Promulgated by thoughtless louts.