As featured in Day 610 of Central Coast Poetry Shows:
https://www.facebook.com/CentralCoastPoetryShows/
This will also be the eponymous poem of my next collection. (Unless I change my mind).
Confession to the Cockroaches
Apparently, you’ve learned to read
and come upon this volume. Know, then:
it lead to your rise.
You might scoff: “These poems didn’t
lead the humans toward their final war!"
But dig a little deeper.
The missiles haven’t launched yet,
but the masses have begun their spiral.
Each day their vitriol flames higher.
Okay, it wasn’t just me. This author. It was
the readers, too. All of us who, unmindful,
worshiped the idol of Merit.
“Of course the elite should get the best,”
we declared, anointing ourselves
with all rights and privileges. With crowns.
We stacked the deck, blinded by our
narrative of Just Rewards.
We hogged the wealth. Off-shored it.
At the masses losing livelihoods,
we only shrugged: “Their fault!
They could go to college. Get retrained.”
As though honest work shouldn’t pay.
As though college solved everything.
As though we deserved our good fortune.
Already I hear the distant drumbeat.
Dumpster fires warm the whole globe.
We are Thelma and Louise. Here comes the cliff.