cudgel in poetry

that goddamn cudgel “faith”
the makers of war machines and wars
forever force faith into our hands
then push our arms over our heads
bash our skulls in while all the while
yelling “stop hitting yourself!”
“stop hitting yourself!”
“stop hitting yourself!”

this forsaken nation
clinging to the subconscious myth
that the rich must be our moral betters
because God must have given them their wealth
never mind that nearly all the big money
comes from either inheritance or theft
as if inheritance and theft aren’t the same thing
while the hardest workers in the world
toil in poverty and despair
and the rich just tell us
go to church and pray for riches
“stop hitting yourself!”
“stop hitting yourself!”
“stop hitting yourself!”

by ruining our economy to buy extra yachts
they’ve left a generation underemployed
or else unemployed completely
with not a goddamned thing to lose
they’ve sewn the seeds of their own destruction
by destroying the middle class
they have called down a thundercloud
they’re gonna hear from us
it always happens this way
they get too greedy
not wanting to admit that a certain amount
of justice is what allows them the
stability to be rich in the first place
they keep forgetting that and getting greedy
you almost wanna tell them
stop hitting yourself
stop hitting yourself
stop hitting yourself