Please | Cattail Jester
Please don’t use your
Tongue like a razor
Or a stinger inside
Please don’t use me
Like an excuse to do
Your worst
Please think of please
Not just to please yourself
But to be pleasing.
poems about social justice
My Nationalism | Ananya S. Guha
My nationalism is very tepid
not warm like yours
My nationalism is colour blind
not swayed only by white or fair
to many it is unfair
My nationalism is not black and white, it is yellow, just right
My nationalism looks at slums, dirty filthy, debris
not really hubris
My nationalism looks at blood with sorrow
every morrow
But my nationalism is I know not right
when wrestling with might.
Expression | Cattail Jester
Relax, it’s just an expression,
I’m told as the insults
roll. This is not democracy.
This is not dialogue.
Just an expression, comes
from a long time ago, not
okay with me. Let me wear
it and use it if I choose. Don’t
hold it like a weapon,
then tell me that I should love
you for it.
The Answer | Cattail Jester
They ask me what
The answer is
Like I can read the sky
Or tea leaves
Be kind
Or something
Stop buying
And give
I don’t know
Sound like a fortune cookie
Just ask yourself.
Out of Mind | Cattail Jester
My world
Steps out beyond skin
Casts away creed
My kind
Is your kind
We are all the same kind
My language
Matches yours
Though we speak obscurely
We code the same.
Willow Tree | Cattail Jester
Where this willow stands
Was the site of the murder
Of conscience
Thus it weeps broadly
No care for passersby
Where young life was strung
High and dignity stopped.
You | Ananya S. Guha
Unrest in the university campus
everyone creates a rumpus
some are arrested
some molested
the university castigated as the worst
when it is the best
you people will never learn
to catch the guilty
you high priests of authority.
Protest V | Gary Beck
Protestors marched on Wall Street
opposed to abuses
of greedy capitalists
wallowing in luxury,
while millions lose jobs, homes,
hope for the future.
Demonstrators were clubbed,
pepper-sprayed,
forcibly arrested,
unheralded heroes
speaking out for many,
supported by few,
destined to defeat
by hirelings of the rich,
elected legislators,
appointed bureaucrats,
serving the wealthy,
forgetting obligations
to a suffering nation.
More at http://www.garycbeck.com.
Their Worries | Krushna Chandra Mishra
Their worries are theirs
With none to take a call
And come to console or care
With full details in hand
On what has ailed for long
And what could heal or help
Only to let them learn
They are different and lowly
And every way they must
Wallow in misery and wants
With pale faces and sunken
Eyes and bellies to the back
Pasted in a curious way and
Arms stretched to beg alms
From the very people whose
Pomp and pride are these
Lowly people’s charities only
To acknowledge which the
Heart of gratitude and love
Is utterly lacking to the
Dismay and disgust of all.
Only if once on a fine day
Those charities are heeded
And the choking guilt is out
To recompense for the loss
To those forgotten masters
Doing them a good turn due
For long perhaps in some
Little degrees service sure
As needed would be given
To steal away their worries.
The Flint, Michigan Water Crisis | Buff Whitman-Bradley
At the end
Of long hot summer afternoons
Parents call their children
Home for supper
And when the young ones come banging
Through screen doors
To slake their thirst
And cool down
For the evening meal
They pour themselves
Glasses of ice water
When the kids return from school
On frigid winter days
And take off their jackets
Their boots and hats, scarves and mittens
Mom sets out a few cookies on a plate
Then spoons some chocolate powder
Into a shiny cup
And adds boiling water
Water in the oatmeal
Water in the soup
Water in the orange juice
Water for boiling potatoes
Water for soaking beans
Water for poaching eggs
Water for stewing apples
Water for bathing and brushing teeth
Water in drinking fountains at the park
A glass of water the last thing
Before going to sleep at night
Water full of lead
Particularly toxic to youngsters
Water full of lead
Kept secret by the governor
Water full of lead
That killed a dozen children
Water full of lead
Causing brain damage
To countless others
In a just world
The wholesale poisoning of young children
Would be a crime against humanity
In a just world
Crocodile tears
And intricately crafted apologies
Uttered by empty suits
Would not be enough
In a just world
The governor and his henchman
Would be out of office
And behind bars
In a just world public officials
Will be decent and honorable people
In a just world
Governors and legislators will not cut taxes
For the well-off
Then allow essential services to decay
For lack of funds
In a just world
Health and safety will be human rights
Not budget line items
In a just world
Politics will not be contaminated
By the dense metals of mendacity and greed
The public good will prevail
None will be expendable
And the water we drink
Will be pure and clean