diseased society poems

The opposite of Everything Is True – A Poem by Stan Morrison

The opposite of everything is true
just look around for telltale clues
corporations don’t pay their share
hard work and talent get me nowhere
it’s just the same in every town
poverty and hatred still abound
we hallucinate on the American dream
while a small number get all the cream
unions are evil but not the banks
it’s time to vote and I say no thanks
we’re all on treadmills getting nowhere fast
how long do you think slavery’s gonna last
the revolution will not be televised

Edge of Chaos | Malcolm Gould

Life seemed to be on the edge of chaos
misery was spreading
with the upsurge in gutter poverty
and that haunting stare,
wherever you walked beggars pleading
their will to live receding.
Arriving home one evening, there, sitting
on my porch step, a man,
this was my first impression nearing,
its shape changed before me
coming to a halt, uncertain what to expect
hostility began to detect.
For what seemed like minutes it did not move
then crawled out of view,
cautiously approached, there was a stain
green and foul-smelling
avoiding the substance yet very aware
that it was right there.
Instinct made me turn, feeling a presence,
the mass was at my back,
just managed to escape its fateful grasp
crashing to the flower bed
running from my own house petrified
for me nowhere to hide.
From their desperation they were created
an abominable creation of beasts
mutated by the pollution and poverty
until that moment never seen
just an urban legend until we collided,
my emotions deeply divided.
Illusions gone, discovering it was real not fiction
these predators mutated,
the population grew, it became an affliction
as poverty divided rich from poor
once, like me, human, living with family ties
with all the hidden deceits and lies.
Life was chaos, nights became a fight for our survival.

Basket Weave | Langley Shazor

Intercultural divisions
Create indivisible boundaries
Invisible expanses
Inner city ravines
“Don’t go to that side of town.”
Because having “sense” and not
Being determined by one’s use of proper grammar
Or lack thereof
Substrata of self-inflicted segregation
This mangled microcosm
Apocryphal declarations of caste
Relentlessly decaying
Esteem and identification inhibited
Eight hundred years before two hundred year slaves
The framework was being laid
No coattails
Drawstrings of sack cloths ridden
Led by their own
Followed by others
Decolonization to recolonization
Reappropriation to misappropriation to disappropriation
A mile in shoes
A mile on bare feet
The direction remains

No Justice | Ndifreke George

If justice is a child
A bastard he is
No father is disciplined
No mother is chaste
If justice is a child
He is sure an orphan
No father can mentor
No mother can deliver

Hello, Win. | Alexandre Bartolo

Her eyes gaze at
a lady with implanted hair
across rosé cheeks,
screws spiking
children’s necks,
Egyptian bands
enrolling firefighters’ bodies,
cliché bloody teeth
coming from my gums.

“It this Halloween,
daddy?”
We tell our children:
“Lies often have shorter legs.”
How can I
tell her this is not?

Should I tell her
the lady has hypertrichosis
which her insurance won’t cover?
Her childhood peers
were murdered by the soon-to-be serial killer?
The mighty Estate
won’t assist His more-burnt burdens than heroes?
My company
is moving towards tax-breaks?

Social Injustice | J.K. Durick

When does something like this end?
When will it lose its prominent place

In the list of things we see around us
Hear about, know from experience

Pass on the street, we read about in
The newspapers we have left to read

Witness on the evening news in
Between ads for the latest meds to help

Us along, make things easier to take?
When will we have better things to think

About, to write about, our better selves,
The better angels of our nature coming

Forward to put an end to some, if not all
Of things like this – that’s when.

Tell the Truth | Angelica Fuse

For once
be honest

with yourself
with everyone

what needs to be
fixed
is also broken
in you

too much sexism
hatred
homophobia
racism
general darkness

lives right
under our society’s
surface.

Voiceless | Carl Wade Thompson

55 people shot this weekend,
quick start to the New Year.
Seems like old news in Chicago land,
place where the random get killed.
What does this say about us,
that it happens on our watch?
Not far from home, another world,
but right here in our back yard.
Why are there no marches,
no talks on Capitol Hill?
Why does the President not react
when blood is spilled in his own burg?
Democrats, Republicans,
no one takes the mayor to task.
Emmanuel instead turns his back,
as the suffering reaches a screaming pitch,
a banshee’s call for the dead.
All I know is no one cares,
as long as non-whites are shot.
Just let them kill each other,
our very own urban onslaught.
I don’t know what to do,
so tired of the death.
Just have to bear it down,
until I watch next weekend’s news.

Washed Up | Lynn White

So many dead people
caught in the crossfire
created by the the money men,
the arms traders,
the super ego-ed politicians.
They lie dead where they fell.
Flesh and blood transformed to
fertilizer to nurture the seeds
and grow the crops, in a future
they will not see.
Their bones decaying to dust
to form the building blocks
of homes they will never inhabit.
Dying where they fell,
over there, not here
and not looking like us.
Unseen or soon forgotten
by us here.

But the dead washed up
on holiday beaches
look like our flesh and blood.
They’re wearing our clothes.
They’re washing up to haunt us
in the Old World.
Then there’s the living,
washed up alive
and by any means necessary
moving on to bear witness,
if any one is listening.
To bring the horror home
to those who created it
in the Old World.
Bringing it home to the Old World,
but not as yet to the New.

More at https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com.

This Developed Nation? | Wandering Biku

In this Developed Nation, a 19 year old woman sleeps in a bag in a door way.
In this Developed Nation, a working family of four relies on the local food bank.
In this Developed Nation, grandmothers live on a pittance and die lonely.
In this Developed Nation, my friends use drugs to fill a spiritual chasm.
In this Developed Nation, stateless refugees are kept in cages while processed.
In this Developed Nation, slave labour is abolished, but persists.
In this Developed Nation, the media patronizes and panders to the lowest common denominator.
In this Developed Nation, the unscrupulous employers bulldoze workers rights.
In this Developed Nation, the population is kept divided and ineffective.
In this Developed Nation, ‘I’m not a racist…but…’
In this Developed Nation, black people are stop/searched nine times more than whites.
In this Developed Nation, under four percent of rape reports end in conviction.
In this Developed Nation, seventeen percent of adults take anti-depressants.
In this Developed Nation, suicide is the biggest killer of men under fifty.
In this Developed Nation, children cut themselves to relieve pain.
In this Developed Nation, I’m a snowflake if I care.

What has this Nation Developed into?

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