Comtemporaries

Contemporaries

Perplexed by my comments

I see your mind working

towards a response

I’ve been here before

so I’m patient

How can one so politically acute

make decisions so apolitical

what’s the purpose of all your research

if you are not prompted to act now

when action might tip the scale

towards something more humane

where’s your historical D.N.A

that ties you to the struggle

which brought the polls to your

fingertips

you know when you abstain

you’re casting your vote into

the enemy’s camp

then I respond:

Each age ponders what will be

done

about the eternal gap

between haves and have-nots

with views as different

as Goethe the comfortable one

Bentham the reformer

Shelley the revolutionary

and Leopardi the pessimist

all contemporaries remaining

unanswered

with the question

giants of an age far removed

but the dilemma seems etched

in stone

the tragedy lies not in

abstaining

but in siding with a lesser

of two evils

Reasoning informs that

whether they succumb to the

big bites of the wolf

or nibbles of the fox

my sheep continue to succumb

so my eyes are focused just

beyond

the wolf and the fox

to the machine

that continues to mass produce

injustice

lying in wait

for unsuspecting sheep

give us true democracy

and you will have

a vote from me