Poetic Injustice....

Oh look! A blog post. The following was written in a single night and is either a poem or song lyrics. Either way I wanted a forum to publish it and didn't want to put it up on a social network as I would like to retain ownership of it yet allow it to be shared. You have my permission to link to this or to share it, but if you do feel compelled to copy it elsewhere I ask that you please include the title, copyright notice and credit the original author as shown. Thank you.

'Sam Sorrow, a portrait of my uncle'

(C) Copyright 2010 Randall Warner

circle of life
an eagle
devouring
her own young

a predatory wolf
caught in steel trap
where freedom means
gnawing a leg off

sniffing at the rotting corpse
of a once great empire
now built upon broken dreams
and disillusionment

piled high with the hubris
of hundreds of years
of mercantilism, of greed,
of genocide and slavery

a formerly great nation
now morbidly fascinated
with violence, with war,
with death, and destruction

the body politic
crucified and bleeding
vultures circling, waiting
to peck out eyes

with faces hardened
in grim resolve
acting as wage slaves
reporting for duty

unsatisfactory satisfaction
with seemingly mundane
automaton-like repetitiveness
another monkey, another typewriter

the blood of noses
sacrificed upon
corporate grindstones
needlessly

lives ground to dust
families neglected
sweat and toil
harvested for profit

too busy to love
too distracted to live
most often neglected
always denied

indentured servants
either a serf or a lord
a destitute existence
with little reward

and the rich get richer
while the poor just die
rabid wolves fleecing sheep
sheep paying for the privilege

we, like rubberneckers
watching while driving slowly,
past the carnage, the wreckage
of a horrible auto accident

as traffic piles up
causing chains of reaction
turning in slow motion into
an infinite loop of causality

repeating endlessly
lessons never learned
mistakes continually made
with clockwork precision

none seem awake enough
nor aware enough
to cry out loudly
to curse the injustices

to realize compassion
to take real action
to finally put a stop
to this vulgar parade

-Laz