"Citadel of Light Merit Badge", 2016, original pen and ink
High society has always been High above the rest High in their castle and oasis High in the penthouse and palace High in the big house and gated suburb. While the rest wander the hills and fields Streets and alleys, making a living Or scraping a living. Seeking greener lands of the free Ever westward; Pilgrims and pioneers, trappers and traders Roughnecks and rednecks Seeking their own jackpot From the Klondike to Vegas. High and low have always existed side by side One above, one below It’s no different today Just more of both With the gap between wider than ever. But what really is high and low? Are those at the top better as well as richer, And those at the bottom really less than? One man’s wealth is another’s poverty The loss of freedom within a gilded cage. What is richness, or beauty, for that matter If it is only measured against another And not a natural quality of just being alive? The gap between have and have nots Is material, but that gap is easier to cross Than the inner gap that doesn’t know And cannot see what real wealth, beauty Freedom and exalted being really means. (9/22/26)
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