Helpful Reminders
be grateful for the crumbs, pittance flung
towards shoeless feet, launched by hands
of self-proclaimed philanthropists, drunk
off smugness, rubbing their satisfied bellies
be thankful, oh so thankful. plastic grins
& starved bodies helplessly dependent
& concealing pain. facade of joy & a life
of accepting unjust burden with a smile
did you make your required offering yet?
did you pledge your undying allegiance
to the infallible powers above reproach,
so great & so impervious to criticism?
don’t forget to worship the violence above,
the heroes & idols & structures & systems
which you signed up to serve at your birth,
the unbreakable contract to bow to authority
it’s imperative you snuff out dreams of wandering
astray, to fall in line, to remain a loyal prisoner
in the name of freedom, to continue kissing
guilty hands of the abuser, forever grateful
you must avoid subversion by any means necessary
lest you discover the cracks in the faulty foundation,
the escape routes exposing fragile insecurity, unveiling
the suffering committed in the absence of our consent
Alex Aldridge is a writer who traded the gloomy skies of Portland, OR to move back to the desert of Tucson, AZ. When they aren't talking to their dog when out walking together, they are in conversation with notebooks and Post-It notes scattered throughout their apartment. They find it much easier to communicate through the written word and talking to their dog than they do speaking to other humans.
