our eyes are empty bloody bodies before us are invisible if skin color matches earth or profit margins decrease then lives are disposable sorry has no place when balancing a spreadsheet age of the deceased hasn’t an entry column so reserve your heartfelt tears until some social event cash contributions will surely make you feel good and console your soul while sipping your martini a social metaphor for thirty pieces of silver well in any case we’ve all seen people die how soon we forget
ragged edges of a dream protrude from neatly tailored words words repeated as a mantra a mantra taught in grade school and ever year thereafter about personal responsibility and maintaining a logical approach to the world’s insanity words spoken in a voice that seems to have never experienced joy for the little laughter emitted sounded as if it was prescribed by some school psychologist as a treatment for being different a suppressed little laugh almost swallowed by its own embarrassment clearly out of place with its immaturity and surely not the time when dealing with such grave issues but politicians rarely are socially appropriate
ain’t no breaking news
the same crimes are committed
over and over again
and the dead
still ain’t gonna get justice
for how do you give justice
to the dead
when their ashes are blown in the wind
to new crime scenes
while
those with blood on their hands
dine out on plush patios
wanting the wind to die down
for there’s
too much
dust
in the air
when destitution permeates society people seek out and believe whatever false hope is preached by charlatans who offer up empty dreams designed to make themselves rich
these are not
discrete points
this year
from
the next
nor
from
the one
that preceded
they are
a continuum
of
war
hatred
and
greed
and
prayers
prayers
that
have no
endings
nor
answers
we pretend
for
a brief moment
celebrating
with
wine
and
kisses
that
what is coming
will be
different
a temporal oasis
an oasis
surrounded
by
the same desert
we were
just
wandering through
and
must
now
re-enter
now be advised that it takes a lot of time to do nothing well nothing but obstruct others from doing what’s right lord knows being so divisive creating national hostility between lifelong friends and neighbors is going to be quite time consuming that’s why i’ll never have time to do my job oh i know there are a few folks out there hoping that my all-consuming fund raising and hell-raising behaviors should be stopped and i should turn my attention to national and international issues that directly affect the lives of my constituents and i would seriously consider those alternative positive actions but i just won’t have time
tell me no more stories of war i don’t want to hear about acts of valor on the battlefield or families left behind orphaned by political and corporate greed no don’t tell me another story until you can raise the dead