By D. R. DiFrancesco

You say it’s for our own good,
You know better than us,
Claiming to be erudite,
But displaying nothing but contempt..

The mold you had cast,
Lies cracked and crumbling,
Still you try to force us to conform,
Assuming we are incompetent.

Hiding behind evangelical fervor,
You treat us as children,
Too naive and simple to surmise what is right,
Sinful beings needing your protection from ourselves.

When did we become so helpless,
You angry old men,
Surrounded by your white marble walls,
Casting retribution over your fiefdom.

Showing little veneration for the gentler sex,
You rule over them with feign compassion,
While valuing them as nothing more than objects,
What despots you are.

Under whose authority is love within your purview,
You look down upon those who do not believe as you do,
Regarding them as broken and immoral,
You vile creatures.

Do they not bleed as you do,
Are born innocent, live and die,
Crave love and acceptance as you do,
What makes you so self-righteous?

You despise those less fortunate,
Consistently questioning their ethics,
You claim they are lazy and felonious by nature,
Begging for alms at every turn.

Do not pretend to know them,
You have never visited their neighborhoods,
Struggled for your next meal,
You would not survive a day in their shoes.

“Pull yourself up by your bootstraps”, says you,
Your totalitarian battle cry,
Toil and sweat, and you can be like me,
Easily said from the pillowed comfort of your penthouse.

We are not like you,
Neither fate nor inheritance have looked favorably upon us,
Our labors scarcely provide for the bare necessities,
Still we have hope in our childrens futures..

Your greed and cold-heartedness have blinded you,
Morally corrupt,
Like the gluttonous tick you bleed society dry,
To build your delusional visions of utopia.