Freedom Cost

 

Freedom has snuck its way into the English dictionary,

Developed a non-existing definition,

And fooled the human mind and heart.

Some slaves to man

Others to love

All to money.

Cha-ching cha-ching

Chimes the sound of enslavement.

Beholding much more power than the eyes can see,

The Benjamins are the unknown deity.

May be in the presence of one

More often than the other,

But he doesn’t discriminate on any basis.

Once a tree turned to paper,

He’s become much more than a want

But a need.

With his power

Has he stripped away the “freedom”

Life once possessed.

Ironic indeed

Subjective to the actions itself

Has a robbery been committed.

The phenomenon is that

Once with power,

Much more must be gained.

In search of endless power has

He made all life necessities

Dependent on him.

He just won’t go away

And with the world’s instinctive nature

Never will.

The world revolves on competition--

On greed.

This greed provides justification

For why there’s no such word as

Free.

No free anything

No free food

No free education

Love even has a price tag,

And most can’t afford it.

A single mother

Three jobs, two kids

Is dying in debt.

The kids haven’t ate outside from home

Since their father had left for a business trip

Two years ago.

Meals on the table

Are as crusty as

The coins used for their purchase.

Money is as tight as the family bond.

Are they happy?

Yes.

But so they lie.

They lie to deny

Their imprisonment to the dollar bill.

Years of a vaguely hidden burden fly by,

And before the thought of it can even be conceived,

The eldest is headed off to college.

But what?

College isn’t free?

But of course not.

And it isn’t cheap either.

But grade school was free (at least to her),

So why a price for college education?

Why a price for love?

Seeking a new companion,

Her heart’s been polluted

To pick men based on wealth.

No matter ugly or handsome,

Money is true beauty

Or at least she’s telling herself.

Vice-versa,

It is hard to find “The One”

When most men judge, by nature,

On appearance.

A woman in heels, strutting a Louis Vuitton purse

Is cashed in much more than

A woman in rags and dirt.

But how can she help it?

She’s sacrificed everything,

The little that she had,

For her kids.

The changes clinging in her battle-torn jean pockets

Are of no value to any clothing department.

And so is she actually free?

Promised the liberty to live as she wants

For the pursuit of happiness?

No.

She’s not.

And she never will be.

 

This poem is about: 
Our world
Poetry Terms Demonstrated: 

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