The War on Simple Living

I want you to stand here where I was
overlooking the city
pockets full of cash holding onto
full time jobs and a caffeine fever
that I loved.

Stand and notice this is when you are
most beloved, accepted by the cashiers
in the mall, treated like a brother in a
diner stall, greeted like a friend
to college admissions.

This is the life you so praise pleasure
boasting all about new skills, and stocks,
and side hustles;
Until,

you find yourself laid off
having payments on the call
having no one to lean on
when you're roadstuck in your car.

Watch
how all your income drops
like gas
sinking until its gone.

This life, you so much praise,
has placed you at its end
and dropped you when you left.

You'll notice then like me
the world around you suffering.

The weak that can not work,
and the old whom work into the bone,

the women with their child at home,
and the young that live in hunger woes,

the sweatshops when you make a store,
the jobs for only making dough in molds,

the empty lots paved over daily jobs,
the resources all towards profit growth,

all here beside you when you did not know
out of ignorance, out of comfort,
out of living in social norms

in an exclusive money centered world
where people aim for richness
over simply working to go home.

A society that moves on when you're broke
when you cant afford to travel anymore
when you notice everything contains barcodes.

Where will you now go
to pretend
that you didn't see the poor?

The people you disown
the moment you return
back into the stores, the apartments,
the only served, the valued pursed,
everywhere behind the line

that shields the human worth.


I tell you, when you leave,
do not forget us
when you're spending green.

07.10.23