Capitalism

Location

Capitalism

A free market doesn’t make you free

What we have is a free market and unfree people

 

Look at the world around you.

The plants that used to grow

The rivers that used to flow

The creatures that would tread on this very floor

All gone.

 

We live in a depressing solitude

In the houses from the mountains and trees and ocean and sky

We massacred for money

With the machines and appliances and constructions

We fabricated for money

With education and so-called skills forced down our throats

So we can ultimately work for money

 

We no longer revolve around the sun

As our astronomer friends would say

We now, longer, revolve around money

The need to get it, use it, get it, use it, for what?

 

Our modern paradigm

You say all the failures can be cured

I beg to differ;

The difference is money.

 

Time is money

And replacing the ransacked landscape

Takes too much time in our dazed and fleeting lives

Takes too much money to harness clean energy

So the flowers wither and the clear skies darken

The smog makes it hard to see the beauty around us

And the eternal stars of the endless sky

Fade out one by one by one...

And all we see are giant metal birds that deafen us,

Soaring, screeching their supersonic songs

But where has the peaceful serenity of sweeter birds gone?

 

The older you get

Education degenerates

From learning basic skills

To the complex

To the specific

To the economic

To the money

This has all been a ruse, hasn’t it?

Where has all the guidance gone?

 

When they asked you

“What do you want to be you grow up?”

They told you to follow your dreams

And that you could be what you wanted to be

But then later they force you into a point

Into an event horizon

And when you realise that you’re stuck in a hole

There’s just no way out and you can’t let go.

 

And when we find we haven’t got

Everything that we’ve sought

As our society has taught

 

We start a fight

We start a battle

We start a war

 

We burn with pure hatred for another human being

Our anger becomes violence, becomes bloodshed

For what we want, for what we need

And we get fooled by the notion that
Doubling our possessions will double our happiness

When really, we are just doubling our greed and halving our happiness

Until we have isolated ourselves from each other

Until we glorify the individual and forget the communal

Until we embark on never-ending quests to get more, and more, and more

Until capitalism has sucked us dry

Until we are surrounded

By our empty, lifeless possessions

When we become hollow beings ourselves

 

Through the “magic” of materialism

Society has made

Our self-interest become our self-worth

It’s no longer “do you enjoy what you do?”

But rather “how much do you make?”

And instead of “let’s make life worth living”

It’s become “let’s meet the standard of living”

 

We are doomed by the lonely realities we have forged

Destined to come into this world infect it

With the poisons that we purchase

And the goodness in us gone

And end our destinies with cataclysms caused

 

Is this really our destiny?

 

Maybe the baker, the butcher, and the brewer should open their eyes

Maybe it may have taken a moment for all three to realise

There is a way to make it all better

 

No more killing. No more hiding. No more hating.

This planet belongs to everyone.

You’ve gotta share, you’ve gotta care.

It’s the right thing to do.

Choose to co-operate,

Not to dominate.

 

"Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full." - Leon Trotsky

 
Guide that inspired this poem: 

Comments

AyanaGenat

One or two typos, but really good poem. I love the message and apreciate the delivery.

 

Eggplanthing

Oh? Where are the typos?

And thank you so much!!

Additional Resources

Get AI Feedback on your poem

Interested in feedback on your poem? Try our AI Feedback tool.
 

 

If You Need Support

If you ever need help or support, we trust CrisisTextline.org for people dealing with depression. Text HOME to 741741