Cloistered in a
Secret room,
Away from meddlers,
He exerts total control
Over what they
See and hear,
A golden opportunity
To omit vital chunks
Of information that
Might lead toward
Justice rather than
His predetermined outcome,
Decisions made without
Outside scrutiny,
Sunlight occluded.
She always knew
He was extremely weak,
Something about the
Need to control every
Situation or the way
He would twitch when
His authority was
Questioned or any part
Of his self-aggrandizing
Pronouncements were
Challenged, a strange way
To live, always tiptoeing
Around the truth to save
An inadequate man’s ego.
Beep beep, here comes the car.
Honk honk, it heaves forward.
In the driver’s seat a small figure
Barely visible over the dashboard.
A quick hand gesture of disgust and
Impatience followed by a rather
Uncontrolled lurch onto the
Grass and the inevitable
Story about how the brakes didn’t
Work and the engine took off
On its own without warning.
Total absolution for the vehicle
Now resting in the living room.
He bloviates about the success of
His business, conveniently overlooking
The role of happenstance –
Right place, right time –
A product of pure chance –
No more effort expended than anyone else –
Pompously claiming prosperity is
The result of being
Extra smart, supernaturally savvy,
Gifted in some special way,
Unlike those he hallucinates
Don’t get off their posteriors and
Do something with the money they
Inherit from their families,
The arrogance of a windbag
Unappreciative of staggering fortune.
He puts a label on everything.
You’re this way, you’re that way.
He’s this, she’s that.
This is like this, this is like that.
A petty mind constricting its
Environment, stuffing it into
A box too small. Proscribe the
Outliers, dictate the parameters,
Keep the barbarians outside
The gates. Settle in for a
Comfortable spell in the lazy,
Soft throne of delusion.
Having been dispossessed
By a callous regime,
She devotes much of
Her energy to devising
A philosophy of
Absolute selfishness.
Some are resilient,
Striving to help people not
Suffer the same fate,
Others lash out in a
Maelstrom of misanthropy,
Slash and burn inhumanity.
A zero sum game —
Only one person wins,
No caring or collaboration,
Empty worth defined by
How much stuff you can
Amass at others’ expense.
I don’t call myself
A feminist, but
I wholeheartedly
Support everything
They have
Fought for
And all they
Believe in,
I just can’t
Tell my family
Friends, co-workers,
They would never
Understand
I am not
Like them.
I never knew how much I loved you
Until I saw you with someone else at that
Dinner party. Exchanging superficial
Pleasantries with the social climber to
My left, forced laughs, feigned interest,
A burning focus on your glowing visage.
Meet my eyes, acknowledge I mean
Something, that I wasn’t just some whim,
A forgettable dalliance until the right one
Came along and swept me from your
Consciousness, kicking an unwanted
Pebble from a manicured path.
Something slightly off,
Vaguely strange.
Stiff, uncomfortable
In social situations,
Overly serious, ill at ease
Interacting with others.
Conversations oddly
Reminiscent of high school.
Inflexibility, stodginess,
Tradition trumps all,
Little tolerance or interest in
Change or progress.
Good old days that
Never existed reign supreme.
Maudlin memories of
Idealized order and conformity.
During a moment of
Unadulterated optimism,
He told them about
His desire to pursue
An art career and they,
Being of upright and
Morally sound carriage,
Applied a heavy coat of
Judgment and suspicion
Onto his dreams,
Same as they always had,
Always would,
Courage and change
Not being all that
Salient to them.