Tag Archives: poverty

Soliloquy

Canned corn on a steel plate,
        cooled a long time ago
        when the sun was still ripe
        and the chair was still on all fours.

Cigarette butts discarded on the stove
        crumpled like crash test dummies
        burned, brutalized and- left behind,
        are only the parts that keep you safe.

The ceiling fan is motionless above
        compensating at a tilt for the missing blade
        dead skin piled on like a snow drift
        nodding soberly in the gust from an open window.

A closed door with holes that fit like gloves
        hides the muffled sounds of lament
        from somewhere beyond desperation
        lost deep in the forest of defeat.

No one has time to finish their meal.
                      not like this
                      not like this
                      not like this

Citizens United

I wish I had enough
to budget for my vote
the cost of the ear
my representative
long since entombed in gold.

While we scrawl on paper
which evil is lesser
our betters tell us
that they are citizens
and they are united

behind something greater
than any we could wield,
as many zeros
trailing as for us lay
ahead, there to impede;

for though voting is free
positions cost money
and it behooves them
to give money power
while we still reward greed.

We too are citizens
but are not united,
we blame each other
for the lack of funding
we would need to contend

but if I could afford
to bend the golden ear,
I’d cry out in pain,
give voice to our freedoms
dying in avarice.