Of Only A Few Poem by Cameron Gallant

What do you see, when you look at that woman who has no money to feed
The children she cares about, the children she loves. Do you see what I see?
I see a confused and messed up society, we need to get our principles straight
Isn’t the woman out on the streets, a bit more worthy of food then the people we’ve chained who’ve shot their husbands or kidnapped children to rape?

I think so, but maybe it’s just me
A lone beacon of hope in this disaster of a messed up society
Where drinking and sex are idolized beyond belief
And where we send our young children to fight overseas

I’m sorry, is there something wrong
With this picture of perfect when our idols are in fact all lost
In the darkest of worlds, with drugs and crime
Yet the kindergartener next door says these idols are who he wants to be like

And our public schools, they’re hazing our kids
Talking about all the things they want to push for
Yet the IRS and scandals we’ve seen
Not a word about all of the problems we can find from within

Children are the future, in that Hitler was right
So why do we back down, why don’t we fight
In the jumbles of lies and the traps we wade through
This is enough to cause me to raise my voice…

For the benefit of many and the resentment of only a few.

(Published in Print in 'DeSSerted Island: Poem Collection' - 2014)