Jun. 28th, 2017

kokopelle: Black Cat (Cat - Black)
“The Saddest Laugh” was prompted by two events. The first event was a friend writing about their discontent with the New-Age mantra “love all people because we’re equal in our stardust status”. They thought that the sentiment ignored conditioned racism, with love really being “owning your conditioned ignorant racist bullshit and asking others to own theirs”. The same day I listened to “The Tracker” by Chad Zunker. It is a story about a young man, in his 20s, who was a survivor of the foster home system. He goes against a political conspiracy and (eventually) wins because he struggled through his early life. In a flash-back, his adult girlfriend says that he should forget his past. He can’t, and by twist of story, succeeds where other would fail because of that past. Both of these themes, that of being blind to other peoples’ struggles, and the fragility of the privileged state, are somewhere in my poem.


The Saddest Laugh

If survival is not a task
part of how a person lives
one can wonder if privilege
is their stomping ground
the red flag is lack of risk
a lack of tears, retaining life
bones not broken, honor held
this isn't how the others live.

The calm persists in ivory towers
blood isn't spilled for freedom's cause
because elevation has its perks
freedom from the trials of men
immunity from the pains of life
that confound the unfortunates
are the realm of pillared folk
who may deny the anguished yokes.

Rights inferred without thought
the hand of fate plays favorites
with greatest joke played on all
is a belief of a shared life
here is the saddest laugh
the protected are contributors
facilitators that can resist
the very pain they inflict.

Now consider where you stand
when compared to wounded ones
I honor those who battle life
thus inflicted by catching up
contrasting with bequeathed ease
with fickle fates this may change
count your blessings while you can
while looking out for the aggrieved.

© 2017. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved. 20170628.

April 2020

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