An Ode To Poverty: A Poem by Michael Wharton
There are of course the few who have,
Those who want or need for nought.
They are a privileged minority class but,
Poverty is a more popular food for thought.
A pleasure sought is a problem halved,
A whim or wish is too easily bought.
Money is a strange disease; whose
Symptoms are societally wrought.
Imagine the future world possession free,
When resources aren’t commoditised.
No wars for stuff and junk or this and that,
A world where you’re not hypnotised.
We can build it, fix it and just do it better,
Our utopian future can now be realised.
Technology will facilitate the transition,
To the world where wealth is synthesised.
This lump of rock belongs to none alone,
To co-exist here we need to better share.
Close the gulf betwixt have not and have,
Give up all of our possessions if we dare.
Do not horde what we can not consume,
Or stockpile spoiling foodstuffs; it is unfair.
If we can’t eat it we destroy or waste it,
We could feed the starving poor everywhere.
Our road to redemption lies ahead in time,
We need to march along it in cooperation.
We need not leaders political or spiritual,
To distract us and break our concentration.
With motives unpure and greed provoked,
They attempt to weaken our determination.
They forestall the day that freedom prevails,
Using fear, peer to peer, and malign litigation.
So there you have it; my first foray into internet poetry and I’m getting political! This poem is of course an indictment against capitalism and the false scarcity, that perpetuate the dichotomy of rich and poor. Anarchy is either the only means to the end of a Utopian world without poverty, or a direct result of a gradual shift of paradigm. We’re moving towards a more free society due to massive technological advances and the collapse of money, as an obsolete, arcane control system.
UPDATE! I have Recorded a video of me READING this poem ALOUD! OMFG!