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Poetry by
Michael
January 02, 1998 |
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Einstein Had It Right |
Love conquers all
but poverty and toothache:
a dentist's filthy lie,
the result of a mind muddled
with the fumes of rotting gums
and weighty bills.
Poverty is pretend.
Joe bemoans his poverty
while brushing off his Armani suit
and clenching his pigskin case
because Joseph just rolled past.
Joseph is glistening:
a made up doll,
the tyrant lord of thick black filth,
tree carcasses long dead.
And seven streets away,
Joey bemoans his poverty
as his worn mother watches him unwrap mittens
instead of unattainable digital-gout for the mind.
All this passes
while an unnamed child
without mittens or mother,
suit or pig-hide,
oil or limousine
picks himself out of a filthy ditch
having endured the rape gangs
for one - more - day
and revels in his wealth
when he finds a flower,
a mane of gold.
Scant miles away,
Joseph's maintainers annihilate a field of dandelions.
Easily conquered by an industrious ant,
effortlessly removed as a scalpel removes a cataract
(and with the same result),
a phantasm birthed by cruel ignorance
and a proud disregard of the obvious,
poverty is pretend. |
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