corporate greed poems Archives - Best Poetry Online

Advertisement | Neil Creighton

For sale,
Planet Earth,
The Solar System,
Orion Arm,
The Milky Way.

This planet,
filled with abundant life
and suggestion of spirit-force,
is slightly used
but has great potential.

Prospective buyers will notice
some wear at the Poles,
difficulty with the air-conditioning,
considerable habitat loss,
coral bleaching,
and species extinction
due to short-term thinking
from the dominant species.

Repairable with care and planning,
the site retains much natural beauty.
In particular, the dome
remains largely untouched,
ethereal blue by day,
stained-glass beauty
morning and evening,
diamond-studded velvet quilt at night.
Other features include
snow capped mountains,
vast oceans that crash on cliffs
or curl and slap on sand,
rivers that rush, fall, roar, meander,
and a dazzling array of vegetation
too varied to list.

But hurry.
A myopic beast called “Corporation”,
caring little for plunder and greatly for profit,
is intent on consuming everything in the yard.

All responsible buyers are welcome.
Please organise inter-galactic
visiting rights before inspection.

Something So Simple | JD DeHart

December 5, 2023 / Best Poetry / corporate greed poems, poems about hope, poems about social justice, social justice poems, unchecked capitalism poems / Leave a Comment

To think of something
so simple
as a basic sense of humanity
denied on the basis
of assumption or commerce.
It’s a strange history
that still seems to be our
present tension.
I used to think how far
we’ve come, but now
I only hope we can go
farther still.

What Grows in Our Meta-Greenhouse | Amanda N. Butler

December 5, 2023 / Best Poetry / contemporary poets, corporate greed poems, environmentalism poems, human folly poems, modern poets / Leave a Comment

Did you know that
–dandelions grow through lava, laughing
in tongues of wildflower flame?
–crabgrass grows through melted ice,
sprouting in waves of crustacean corpses
and spouting skyscrapers?
–pipes grow through bones?
More information is included in your handout
along with your complementary gas mask
that can be personalized right from your phone
courtesy of our sponsor –

More at http://arsamandica.wordpress.com/.

The Dogs Slip out Again | Tricia Knoll

November 24, 2023 / Best Poetry / corporate greed poems, injustice poems, native american rights, poems about social justice, poetry online free, social justice poems / Leave a Comment

That black and white TV, police dogs,
night sticks, and fire hoses. 1963.
Birmingham scared this child viewer.

Now with the remote in my hand,
in full-color black dogs pull
on leashes held by corporate security.

Up the chain of command someone cried
havoc at the oil fields. Let loose
corporate dogs to draw blood

for black oil money. Scare
the people with treaty rights.
Tell them oil drives, not ancient bones,

nor sacred waters, nor wind prayers.
Only rights of passage
of petroleum.

Handlers ignore the bones
dogs might understand.
People stand up, hope

never to be bitten again.

More at http://triciaknoll.com.

Labor History | Roy Pullam

August 23, 2023 / Best Poetry / corporate greed poems, organized labor poems, poems about social justice, social justice poems, union poems, workers' rights poems / Leave a Comment

It is more than a job
His son’s shoes
The roof over his family’s head
The food in their stomachs
The future
Now all uncertainty
Added to the cold
On the picket line
A sign
Proclaiming the unfairness
The slow walk
In front
Of the gate
The only warmth
The wood fire
In a fifty gallon barrel
The inequality of power
A Fortune Five Hundred corporation
Committed to break the union
Strikebreakers ready
To snatch a job
To work for less
Police their loyalty
To property over principle
But he will wait
Sacrificing with the hope
Of security
It is the story
Of labor
The patience
The long suffering
With the hope
His march
Around the walls
Of capital
Will bring the walls down

I Had a Nightmare Last Night | Gil Hoy

August 22, 2023 / Best Poetry / corporate greed poems, heartless politicians poems, poems about social justice, social justice poems, state sanctioned violence poems / Leave a Comment

I had a nightmare last night,
A nightmare deeply rooted
in an American nightmare.

Where churches and schools,
theaters and city streets
were dying.

Where military weapons
were firing into unsuspecting
innocent crowds

Tentwentythirtyfortyfifty
pigeons intheblinkofaneye.

I awoke in a terrified sweat
as bleeding children wailed
and cried and screamed.

While those to protect us tasked
slept soundly in their beds.

A nightmare deeply rooted
in an American nightmare,

I had a nightmare last night.

Blue | Anna Kander

August 22, 2023 / Best Poetry / corporate greed poems, income inequality poems, lack of empathy poems, poems about social justice, social justice poems / Leave a Comment

Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets!

Blue-chip companies take their name from the color of the highest-valued chips at poker tables on October 28, 1929.

(we’re reliable, all-American, safe)

Then comes October 29, 1929: the day the stock markets crash.

Then comes October 30, 2009: me, new to a minimum-wage custodial crew, learning that the most important thing, when you clean the headquarters of a multibillion-dollar corporation, is the executive washroom.

The questions are not: Are floors swept? Are counters and toilets clean?

The real questions are: Is the trash empty, even if there were only three paper towels in the bin?

(they don’t want to see trash)

Did you wipe away any fingerprints left when you opened the shiny chrome stall doors?

(they want you to be invisible)

And, is the water in the toilet bowl a reassuring, disinfectant-blue?

No? We’ve no time. They don’t pay us enough to stay any longer. Night janitors got to hustle to the next job.

Just spritz some blue in there, let’s go.

(they don’t want to see)

(they’ll never know)

More at http://annakander.com.