Shape-Shifting Torment


Buried long amidst fear and repression,
a world gazes at television screens in wonder,
so many of like mind,
so many of like purpose,
so many insistent on false freedom.

Why such insistence?

We are not of like mind.

We are not of like purpose...

Yet, far too many remain trapped,
clamorous of membership in the two percent.

Ironically,
the mind,
its purpose,
its freedom,
its health,
rests indubitably void of wealth’s trappings.

Perhaps…

It should be obvious to us,
we are but human-frailty with raw needs and wants,
asking but for simple civilized behavior,
even as most send messages for all to hear,
that the hope of most is to survive
with a re-start void of dishonesty and self-interest.

And yet…

Some sit back and wonder
at this silence of public eruption,
this continued stifling of tremors below,
quashing the need for release

while faulty leadership self-indulges in self-aggrandizement.

Alas…

For now. the glistening ducts of “civilized behavior”

emits but muted cries down the face of truth,
forming tears of quiet guilt,
even as we rejoice
at the tenacity of care-givers’ courage.

To embrace one another,
to hope abusive power destroyed,
to build a life imbued with love,
free from degradation and exploitation,
such is the goal of man's rights,
the humanistic permission to live freely,
to be whole,
to never experience the next shape-shifting torment

waiting in the wings.