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Below are poems written by poet Heidi Smith Pento. Click the Next or Previous links below the poem to navigate between poems. Remember, Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth. Thank you.

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They'Re Trying To Tell You

They’re trying to tell you
That your superstitions and machinations 
Are an exhausting game of whack-a-mole
They’re trying to tell you 
You’ve assumed a version of them
That society told you existed and you never questioned
They’re trying to tell you 
At every corner a new threat lies
From a ginned-up populace at a fire sale on torches and pickaxes
They’re trying to tell you 
Their successes are in spite of you, still
You, who want their struggle extinguished
They’re trying to tell you

They’re trying to tell you
That they are not uneducated sitting ducks, feathers soaked in oil
Throwaway Luddite has-beens with archaic ideals
They’re trying to tell you
It’s not their genetics 
it’s a death by a hundred toxic paper cuts 
They’re trying to tell you
They didn’t ask for more than their fair share
And got what they asked for
They’re trying to tell you
That they’ve never learned to be oppressor and oppressed
Taxed with their own struggles
They’re trying to tell you

They’re trying to tell you
They’re the canaries in the coal mine
With pervasive black lung 
They’re trying to tell you
Their ‘defenders’ can’t be trusted
Offering head-scratching fix-its and aligning with the devil
They’re trying to tell you
They’re to ignore the flaming spigots and suicidal birds,
Dead zones in their neighborhoods
They’re trying to tell you
You’ve fracked at the earth’s pores until it had blemishes
While your complexion remained clear

They’re trying to tell you
Clandestine influences have wreaked havoc worldwide
In the ultimate game of psychopathic Monopoly™
They’re trying to tell you
This Frankensteinian economic monster 
Will outlive its creators and live on in us
They’re trying to tell you
Under the cloak of prosperity lies our own depravity 
While a history of shared wealth is hidden, gradually swept under the carpet
They’re trying to tell you
Their assembly line of greed indoctrination has steamrolled young minds
Feeding them the opiate of self-interest
They’re trying to tell you

We’re trying to tell you
We can see the cracks in the edifice
Long enough to view your hostages
We’re trying to tell you
With your consolidated power
Sooner or later you will be eating your young
We’re trying to tell you
There are many solitary foot soldiers in the quest for justice,
And sometimes they win
We’re trying to tell you
Your Randian ideals are going the way of the dodo
Our stadiums will outnumber your conference rooms
We’re trying to tell you
You’re going to need more night watchmen

Copyright © Heidi Smith Pento | Year Posted 2019


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Date: 12/25/2019 3:56:00 AM

Wow! Welcome to Soup. Your write is amazing.
Date: 12/22/2019 1:50:00 PM

This poem was inspired by the course Bridges to JustPeace at Harvard Extension School. The course sought first to educate its students about Galtung’s theory of cultural and structural violence. It then demonstrated where cultural and structural violence exist through units on corrupt politics, neoliberalism, the struggle of blacks in America, white poverty, environmental deregulation, and climate change. My reaction to this material was to try and distill and personify these infractions into what I thought each oppressed party was “trying to tell” the powers that be- the people that can make a change, which is ultimately all of us.

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