In Our Midst

22 March 2024

https://poems.culturing.net/2024/03/in-our-midst/

There's a story that goes untold
beneath the layers of simple nicety
where men are bought and sold
and where the rules are always clear.
Here power speaks while others listen
and plants dreams in helpless ears,
while foreheads glisten with the sweat
of wasted years, time out of mind.
This kind of thing is now familiar.
Those with no end in sight
must labor on for someone else
despite all promises of freedom.
Above ground we play and sing
the patriotic songs, forgetting,
as the healthy always do,
the sickness hiding in our midst.