Apolitical...

Image source: https://twitter.com/HusnaPervez/status/1171402351841894406/photo/1 

 

© October 2, 2021, the Griot Poet

 

Some say I’m a political poet,

Poets, my friend Ivanhoe said, are “prophets of eternal truths,”

[This] is why this line got my creative juices flowing:

 

“I’m just not that into politics.”

 

A meme shared on Facebook by my friend, Thom the World Poet,

Inspiring this poetic rift:

 

Your boss is into politics,

So much so, his company hires lobbyists,

That is not in the US Constitution,

Yet they roost on Capitol Hill,

Bending times, laws, biology, physics:

 

“Smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer.”

“Climate change is a myth.”

"Coronavirus is a hoax."

"The election is rigged."

Wait a minute: that was the previous mistake playing president.

I digress:

Five ounces of crack cocaine: a life sentence,

Five ounces of powdered cocaine: counseling, and a slap on the wrist,

 

Look at the different treatments in the Crack and Opioid epidemics,

One requires for-profit prisons, the other licensed counselors,

Look at how society treated AIDS before crossing into heterosexual communities,

Sermonizing stopped, and as suddenly as it was, it by hypocritical epiphany wasn’t “God’s punishment,”

Some might call it witchcraft,

White supremacy is a form of sorcery,

Metaphorically depicted in “Lovecraft County,”

In other nations, it’s called corruption and bribery,

 

Your insurance company is into politics,

Hiring the same wizard lobbyists,

The gist is to increase shareholder equity,

Not negotiating lower prices for your policy,

Or medication to treat your maladies,

Using “acts of God” to deny you coverage,

When you need to use the policy you paid for monthly,

It’s why they rail against “socialism,”

Unless it’s Wall Street bailouts that benefit them,

Libertarians on YOUR benefits, Marxists with THEIRS,

Because a universal healthcare system would make executive dinosaurs obsolescent,

 

Your landlord is into politics,

His owner hired lobbyists,

It’s why your “too damn high” rent keeps rising,

But your square footage is standing pat,

While your amenities have gone flat,

 

Real estate was always into politics,

Redlining is it explicitly,

Refusing to sell to African Americans,

Segregating us in ghettos,

Conveniently located next to sewage treatment plants, smokestacks, and toxic landfills,

Lead pipes replaced with PVC in East Austin gentrified communities,

As the descendants of the original residents priced out of their inheritance,

Not allowing us to build equity or wealth,

Consigning generations of progeny to adverse living conditions and poverty,

Have you ever heard of restrictive covenants?

Specific neighborhoods in West Austin didn’t allow Lansbury/Hughes “Raisins in the Sun” to purchase,

Or that Bruce Beach in California stolen from the Bruce family,

One hundred years ago by the Ku Klux Klan?

Bruce Beach is a multimillion-dollar piece of real estate,

Returned to its rightful owners one hundred years later,

The first time this country has tried reparations,

Maybe Central Park, New York, Wilmington, North Carolina, Rosewood, Florida, and Tulsa, Oklahoma are next?

 

Your air is political,

Your water is political,

Your land is political,

Your insurance is political,

Poetry is political,

It’s crucial whether your dog catcher or sheriff is an empath or a sociopath,

Whether we go to war is political,

Whoever “we the people” place in power with the nuclear codes is political,

And can decide if we go forward to “green new deal” energy independence,

Or continue in fossil fuel “Hunger Games” serfdom debasement,

And can decide if the species has continuance,

Don’t be so arrogant:

The dinosaurs ended by the Chicxulub impactor,

They did not know, or had politicians or scientists to factor,

In how they met their ends,

If we end, Earth will have continuance,

If our “mutually assured destruction” doesn’t involve radiation,

A new matrix will rise in our absence,

A more peaceful sapient hopefully after this Ragnarok,

If you haven’t caught the gist of this rift,

I want our evolution and continuance:

 

“I’m just not that into politics” is the height of willful ignorance.