Sunday, December 9, 2018

day SIX HUNDRED and EIGHTY NINE


GREED

Had I been warned many years ago
I would never have believed
that I would live to see greed become
the dominant philosophy of my country.
To hear duty to stockholders held up
as the standard justifying what would
otherwise be criminal business practices.
To hear compassion called un-American,
and kindness referred to as folly,
unless it attaches to a tax credit.

I would never have believed
that I would live to see, in my country,
rising violent anti-Semitism,
officially sanctioned racism,
and unbridled xenophobia
held up as expressions of patriotism,
afforded equal time in the
national consciousness
as though they were simply
differences of opinion among gentlemen.
They who speak thus are not gentlemen.

I would never have believed
that we would again allow
the environment to be held down,
screaming, spread-eagle, by politicians
well paid for their pernicious perfidy
while it is violently gangbanged by
one corporate entity after another
in a line which seems endless.

Had I been warned many years ago
I would still never have believed
my country could sink so low.
Perhaps I have already lived too long.

--M.J. Arcngelini

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