Don't Pat Us on Our Heads and Tell Us that Things Have Changed

We cannot “let bygones be bygones” because
None of those are actually gone. Have the prisons
Been emptied of victimless “criminals?” Have
Bullets topped hitting unarmed men's backs?
Can a woman be named to a corporate board,
Or Black family live anywhere that they want?
Have the drone strikes been canceled, the sanctions
On nations which failed to kowtow to us lifted?
Hell, no, nor are women allowed to control
Their own bodies, or queers who get married
To buy wedding cakes. The poor lose their homes
And their healthcare, miss meals, while
The shockingly wealthy haul in even more
And toss pennies to toadies who promise
More jails and more dead on the sidewalks,
More sanctions and drones. The bygones
Aren't bygones. Things all seem the same,
And we're shouting that shouldn't be so.



Poetry by Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 52 times
Written on 2020-09-09 at 20:41

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