Poem - "The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

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THE KNACKER

The lot
of most
of mankind
throughout all of history
has been abject poverty.
Not the artificial kind
designed by advertising
instigated by insufficient quantities
of de rigeuer commodities,
but from the reality
of the eternal, relentless
mortifications
of the flesh -

disease
starvation
and exposure
to the elements.

Subtraction from
healthcare, food aid
and home heating assistance
in the Killing Floor U.S. Budget
showcases the depraved indifference
of the wealthy and corporations
who have purchased tax cuts and subsidies
with pounds of flesh incised from the poor
prior to knocking them to their knees

for slaughter in the economic abattoir
by means
of the eternal, relentless
mortifications
of the flesh -

disease
starvation
and exposure
to the elements

from which The New Deal
and Labor Unions
temporarily
delivered us.

Demons of Greed and Depravity
currently control
corporations
Congress
courts
even
Christianity

inciting each ME in We The People
to abandon solidarity
for a chance to gaze down in exquisite contempt
on the rest of struggling humanity.

But this small, exclusive fraternity of the few
has not enough room for most of the many,
and simply insures their self-destruction
and their ongoing submission to tyranny

fettered by eternal, relentless
mortifications
of the flesh -

disease
starvation
and exposure
to the elements.

"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." - Frederick Douglass

- Vi Ransel

Authors Bio:
Vi's works appear widely both in print and online. She conducts Poetry Workshops and gives readings in Central New York. Her latest chapbook is "Sine Qua Non Antiques (an Arcanum of History, Geography and Treachery).