proverbs 22:16

[alexconall]

what do they care
if we can't pay
the bills run up
to keep us alive?
to save our kids?
why bother with
expensive care
we don't deserve?
there's plenty more
where we came from

what do they care
if we can't reach
the grocery store?
who has no car?
hauling grocery bags
and small children
on the bus
isn't a problem
who takes the bus?
what are we wasting time on
that we don't have time to cook?
nobody's food budget
is actually only food stamps
of course it's possible
to escape poverty
while food-stamp-eligible
math says not
but math lies

what do they care
if the world's warming?
they have air conditioning
if the coasts flood?
their second house
is in the rockies
if the rivers dry?
they can buy bottled
if crops yield less?
higher food prices
won't mean smaller meals
how dare we suggest
investing in renewables
instead of oil companies
making record profits?
or designing communities
to be livable without a car
that guzzles oil
and farts greenhouse gas?

what do they care
that the facts say
one dollar spent
on food stamps and unemployment
produces nearly two dollars
in economic activity
and one dollar on tax cuts
for people with offshore accounts
well under a dollar?
how dare we suggest
things grow better
with money as with manure
if it's spread around
not piled and stinking?

what do they care
if we suffer?
we aren't real
if we were
we would have enough money
to not suffer



proverbs 22:16 by Elizabeth Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.