Double-Sided Coin

All of us measure in equal parts.
Yet still, we do not all equal in measure.

Who are you who strolls by?
Brushing the shoulders of your fellows each passing day?
Looking upon the few,
Depicting your view of rational.

One by one, in your army of normality.
"Searching for the truth." You proclaim, with your stetson smiles.
Your charity, their reality, is upheld within your turtleneck lies.

There 'they', the other ones crouch,-alone.
There 'they', the other ones wander,-lost.

Searching, searching.
Their cries can be heard,
But only through the echoes of their tears.
Searching for the map!
The map you hold blindly before them each day.

They wear hunger like leprosy.
As it decorates their identity.
Becoming more contagious,
By your ways of reason.

They wear loneliness like a black veil.
Hiding their agony to become who YOU are.
Each passing day, becoming more transparent,
While you blanket their necessity.

Cell phones still sing,
Voices still squawk,
Drowning, drowning-
The compassion that whispers on the angel's breath,
Within the embrace of the wind.

Cover your Listerine bathed mouth;
As they cough, their cough, of black ill.

Hold your eyes', cover them well;
For to look upon their face means you must feel.

Pinch your nose tight;
You see, a rose by any other name,
May bring you reason-
To reach, to touch, to bleed your dollar bills.

The veins which pulse your coded pride,
Is where you find your common kind.
The beautiful ones, you are, all shiny and new.
The style of ambition, 'on sale now!'

Discard last years kashmir scarf, and angora sweater.
Wrap them in a box-marked 'X'!
Let them eat your scraps, and wear your garbage, as their Sunday best.
You have done them well.

Decorate your walls, with your college degrees',
Your Bachlors'. Your Masters'. Your collage to be free.
As they hold their credentials, on a cardboard sign.
'WILL WORK FOR FOOD!' In black ink inscribed.

You claim, if you give, they'll just use it to drink.
But what would you do with two dollars,
-no home, and a lifetime of pain?

A penny saved, is a penny earned.
So, drop your spares and make their cups 'ching'!
They say 'Thank You', bearing their cross, like Christ;
But it is your cup that runneth over.

Drink your promotion, eat the feast-
Remember, you have been blessed,
While they wretch low, in a gutter, their bellies growl before the bite.
Their innards feeding on itself.

"Those bleeding-heart liberals! They don't have a clue. Profit margins will plummet, from needless expense!" You scoff, with fine wine laced breath.
While WE, the martyrs clean up your mess,
Securing your tax deductible blindfolds.
 
The church is full, little clones tucked neatly in a row.
Tithe your seed-investment you sow!
"Ten times the return!" The preacher does sing.
But from outside the stone walls,
Can you not hear the abandoned scream!

All rosey, to service you come,
To relieve your conscience.
You righteous soldiers,
'Come Ye' with your saint costumes and hide;
For the battle to survive marches on,
-outside the wrought-iron gate.

Grit and dirt becomes their cleanser,
A shower of filth, before they tuck in tight.
Tomorrow's dawn shall bring a sunset of hopelessness,
As you wake, and get your StarBucks on!

Hurried, hurried.
You mustn't be late!
Watch your step, as their shoeless feet litter your way.
Grab the Tribune, can't miss the stock news!
But please, be careful not to tear the page-
For in the cold, dead of night,
President Obama's face shall become their blanket.

No more grass to cushion their feet,
The park is off limits, it is for your view, you see.
As they may spread 'awareness eye disease'.

Sweet, sweet summer- rays of heat rise off concrete.
Take your plastic shots of Gatorade-success doesn't sweat.
There they lay in thirst, and watch your Nikes pass quick.
"Water is free." You think aloud as you meet their sight.
But not in the land of the lost;
Where twenty-five cents for the cup, is the reply to stay alive.

Who are YOU who strolls by?
Ignorant to famine.
Ignorant to the neglect, 
Your truth has adjured.

And the tears of humanity continue to bleed-
Although, deeply masked, with your self-righteous pollution!
And the sun continues to grace light upon ALL of us-
...even, the Forgotten Ones!





MADELYNN
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