Progress?

 

A common theme or moral I get upon reflection

is we can't call it progress when we choose the wrong direction.

First class, deluxe, cutting edge, prestigious, chic, or glamorous...

Ego stroking, soothing words we say instead of avarice.

Caveat emptor, don't lose your shirt, down you need to hunker

before confronting "Honest" Ed who's selling you a junker.

"Honest" Eds are everywhere they never used to be

charging what the market bears to keep that market "free."

I don't feel free. Do you? Not me when freedom seems to be

getting gauged and overcharged for things that once were free.

Before you call me cynical or thrash me as contrarian

I warn you my health care and yours neglects both health and caring.

Nestle, Danone, Coca-Cola, the drinking water giants

count us, the naked royalty, their snake oil guzzling clients.

Our civilized societies have yet to launch a law suit

for marking up a million times what once flowed from our faucets.

You and me just being we, that's free of charges surely!

Not so my bro, here, as you know, reality gets squirrely.

Like primordial ooze, we did not choose to pop into existence,

but just relax and pay your tax or rot on social assistance.  

Can we share the very air we need for respiration?

Au contraire ma soeur, mon frere. Not by my calculation.

Look above and show some love to aircraft of all kind.

They own the airs and take their shares of fares that keep us behind.

Before you think or put in ink philosophy or wisdom,

you must beware of what I term crime thought/thought crime sadism.

Do not disparage the gross miscarriage of justice by the laws.

The penalty is harsh, you see, for confusing effect and cause.

If we should choose to forfeit and not participate

in this existence we are sold as civil, refined, great,

we won't have a dime and for that crime we'll be charged by the banks.

They'll get our pay either way. They'll even get our thanks.

Who can save us from our fates? How can we get protection?

We'll stage a ritual of faith and call it an "election." 

But leaders speak in codes of which they stand in dereliction.

How can we call it "progress" when we choose the wrong direction?