After you
have found the holy grail
and proved your rightful claim to it,
after you
have saved the whales
and other endangered species
protected
your conscience, ignoring
the weak who reach out for help,
 

after you
ride like Arthur
through armies of injustice,
your smug
Excalibur piercing
illiberal hearts and closed minds
to liberate
each minority

of race, gender, creed or class 
that did not seek a saviour
but only
the right to speak
for itself when you presumed
to speak for
everybody, never listening;
proscribing
thoughts and ideas
silencing inconvenient voices,
 

after you
have said a prayer
for each child who was not fed
bitter bread
baked by your
caring liberal charity
but starved
on crumbs dropped from
our table of conspicuous consumption
while you
regretted your
inability to conjure with bread and fishes,
 

after you
have washed your guilt
in sterile words that disinfect no wounds
and cannot
heal the tumors
of greed that consume humanity,

after you
have slain the serpent
in your belly, reached into the wound,
held up
its twitching body
so all can see the purgation of
your failures
will the world then
be a better place for those
who must come after you?

(A Hedonist's Accusation of the Self Righteous.)