CALM Publishing

THESE IRONIES WERE NOT SELF-EVIDENT

 

These ironies were not self evident

Lying there exposed

Rather, they hid

Behind youth, happiness and laughter

Silently lurking

Poised to pounce

When the opportunity opens

         Let your guard down and there it is –

         Anger over a loss

         Self-pity instead of activity

         Jealousy in place of acceptance

You drop back into fresh reality

Look around, see all the people

Coping, hoping; family or solitary

All making it through, problems as well.

Then see all those who aren’t there

Shut in somewhere

Ill, hurt or too old to move –

And how do all these souls go on?

How does the human survive?

         Until you walk streets and really see

         How many men and women have no place to sleep.

         Rampant poverty

         Sidewalks filthy

         Garbage diggers abound

         Wild men in dirty old clothes

         Bound up in layers

         To survive the bone deep chill

         Of cardboard on concrete

Cameras in every store front

Filming the decay of our civilization.

How long until the poverty

drives them insane and violent and jailed?                              201206.1