Teach Me Grace – Cedar Annenkovna

Color, creed, religion, sex
          measure not the depth of intellect
             and will never calculate one heartbeats strength against the nexts
  I am my brother’s keeper; I cannot want if he has less
       If I am rich while he is not can’t deem it progress
                to eradicate the clases
          eliminates the disparity between rich and poor, the masses
              education and health care accessible commodities
      centralize a workforce to address
              single use plastics, synthetics, styrofoam products
     things that will never turn back into dirt…
                                                 or any natural process
                                        snatched up quickly for cheap
                       In a pretty package, flashy, bright, colorful and sweet
                           discarded now, how quickly forgotten
                     the contents are gone, but left behind the remnants
           to become someone else’s problem and never our own
    skirted away in trash bags to already full landfills
                dumped in the oceans
          found in third world countries’ streets
                so we then label them dirty; unclean
      while it is we the keepers of wonderful democracy
        whom mass produce what the earth cannot keep
Biodegradable/compostable items a novelty
             available to Hollywood,
                the yuppie, suburbia
                  but not the barrio
              or in the prisons, even poor country folk
          to those of us whom need it most
       minimum wage workers of the 9 to 5
who dream of Cadillacs vs. trees
       or flowers and plants that give us air to breathe…
          And you call me a robber?
             call me crazy
                  call me communist
I dream not of luxury, I just want to be free
     so I might return to mountains and streams
and scheme of ways to save the earth
                 from people, from me, from each other
                        yes I am an animal
                                But you are my brother
               this is serious
                       this is jail!
                    we do not appreciate a sense of humor here at all
                              and if you care about anything
                                  never let them see
So I smile politely
            and when they walk away I rip up their sheets
                 in strips to wrap up my feet
                       to run the stairs until I cannot breathe
               my life is not of more value than a beetles
      and a mountain lion offers no apologies for being a beast
         WAKE UP! WAKE UP!!
                 from this nightmare
                         but I am not speaking just to me
                    change the way we think
          the earth is being ripped out from beneath our feet
suffocated with every ounce of plastic packaging
                                                   of foods we eat and drink
       thinking of the consecutive off of species as a result there in
             my cell walls; panic comes closing in
                  I am a communist
                       But how shall I begin?
            Society; the pharmacy medicates and segregates
              prescribes isolation and desolation
                       to those who act in desperation
         In my next life
                  may I just be starlight
                      to shine on loved ones faces…
          and then be gone without a trace
How does one really live a life of Grace?

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