The River Of Outrage Poem by Duane Robert Pierson

A river flows through this country
seen only by the cynical eye of the excluded sane,
a stream of cultural sewage glittering like ersatz gems
sending ripples of scented acid lapping at citizen souls,
passes Potemkin villages marketing hypocrisy where
ignorance is a haven, religion balm, reality a game, hope a whip,
dreams are hooks upon which marketers hang carcasses of debt.

Glossy celebrities, the modern gladiators,
dance and play to distract the minds of addicted consumers
so we do not see the wealthy few who would make old Solomon blush.
The economy trickles down rich men’s urine and poor man’s sweat.
Inherited wealth breeds effete leeches
while government survives taxing the sins of the poor.
Spawn of Torquemada and Robespierre are lobbyists
as a Goebbels clone does public relations
buying politicians to build wealth for the wealthy
while medieval throwbacks blow innocents asunder,
women and children enslaved for the pleasure of lecherous scum,
while in forsaken places like Darfur women and children are starved and raped.
Healthcare industry squeezes the last dollar from the aged, poor, and ill.
Politics a feeding tube stuffing us with zealots’ dogma.
Contrails mark a gigantic luxury plane carrying a sole rich man.

Eternity’s fossil fuels wasted within two centuries,
entire species swatted like flies into oblivion.
Our soldiers used as mercenaries to fight oilmen’s wars,
brave people sent to die by draft dodging politicians.
Oceans culled of life and filled with effluent and trash.
Poisons in the air, oil stocks soar, poisons in the water,
glaciers and icecaps melt, draught envelops the land,
billions struggle to exist while plutocrats sip thousand-dollar wine.
News is entertainment where celebrity sex stifles
yawns over billion-dollar corporate scandals.
And we? We dance, we sing, we buy.
Where is the outrage?
It flows by us like a river
we cannot see because it glows and shines
like sunshine created rainbow colors on an ocean oil spill.