corporate greed poems Archives - Best Poetry Online

Advertisement | Neil Creighton

For sale,
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The Solar System,
Orion Arm,
The Milky Way.

This planet,
filled with abundant life
and suggestion of spirit-force,
is slightly used
but has great potential.

Prospective buyers will notice
some wear at the Poles,
difficulty with the air-conditioning,
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and species extinction
due to short-term thinking
from the dominant species.

Repairable with care and planning,
the site retains much natural beauty.
In particular, the dome
remains largely untouched,
ethereal blue by day,
stained-glass beauty
morning and evening,
diamond-studded velvet quilt at night.
Other features include
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vast oceans that crash on cliffs
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rivers that rush, fall, roar, meander,
and a dazzling array of vegetation
too varied to list.

But hurry.
A myopic beast called “Corporation”,
caring little for plunder and greatly for profit,
is intent on consuming everything in the yard.

All responsible buyers are welcome.
Please organise inter-galactic
visiting rights before inspection.

Something So Simple | JD DeHart

December 5, 2023 / Poetry Website / corporate greed poems, poems about hope, poems about social justice, social justice poems, unchecked capitalism poems / Leave a Comment

To think of something
so simple
as a basic sense of humanity
denied on the basis
of assumption or commerce.
It’s a strange history
that still seems to be our
present tension.
I used to think how far
we’ve come, but now
I only hope we can go
farther still.

What Grows in Our Meta-Greenhouse | Amanda N. Butler

December 5, 2023 / Poetry Website / contemporary poets, corporate greed poems, environmentalism poems, human folly poems, modern poets / Leave a Comment

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More at http://arsamandica.wordpress.com/.

The Dogs Slip out Again | Tricia Knoll

November 24, 2023 / Poetry Website / corporate greed poems, injustice poems, native american rights, poems about social justice, poetry online free, social justice poems / Leave a Comment

That black and white TV, police dogs,
night sticks, and fire hoses. 1963.
Birmingham scared this child viewer.

Now with the remote in my hand,
in full-color black dogs pull
on leashes held by corporate security.

Up the chain of command someone cried
havoc at the oil fields. Let loose
corporate dogs to draw blood

for black oil money. Scare
the people with treaty rights.
Tell them oil drives, not ancient bones,

nor sacred waters, nor wind prayers.
Only rights of passage
of petroleum.

Handlers ignore the bones
dogs might understand.
People stand up, hope

never to be bitten again.

More at http://triciaknoll.com.

Labor History | Roy Pullam

August 23, 2023 / Poetry Website / corporate greed poems, organized labor poems, poems about social justice, social justice poems, union poems, workers' rights poems / Leave a Comment

It is more than a job
His son’s shoes
The roof over his family’s head
The food in their stomachs
The future
Now all uncertainty
Added to the cold
On the picket line
A sign
Proclaiming the unfairness
The slow walk
In front
Of the gate
The only warmth
The wood fire
In a fifty gallon barrel
The inequality of power
A Fortune Five Hundred corporation
Committed to break the union
Strikebreakers ready
To snatch a job
To work for less
Police their loyalty
To property over principle
But he will wait
Sacrificing with the hope
Of security
It is the story
Of labor
The patience
The long suffering
With the hope
His march
Around the walls
Of capital
Will bring the walls down

I Had a Nightmare Last Night | Gil Hoy

August 22, 2023 / Poetry Website / corporate greed poems, heartless politicians poems, poems about social justice, social justice poems, state sanctioned violence poems / Leave a Comment

I had a nightmare last night,
A nightmare deeply rooted
in an American nightmare.

Where churches and schools,
theaters and city streets
were dying.

Where military weapons
were firing into unsuspecting
innocent crowds

Tentwentythirtyfortyfifty
pigeons intheblinkofaneye.

I awoke in a terrified sweat
as bleeding children wailed
and cried and screamed.

While those to protect us tasked
slept soundly in their beds.

A nightmare deeply rooted
in an American nightmare,

I had a nightmare last night.

Blue | Anna Kander

August 22, 2023 / Poetry Website / corporate greed poems, income inequality poems, lack of empathy poems, poems about social justice, social justice poems / Leave a Comment

Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets!

Blue-chip companies take their name from the color of the highest-valued chips at poker tables on October 28, 1929.

(we’re reliable, all-American, safe)

Then comes October 29, 1929: the day the stock markets crash.

Then comes October 30, 2009: me, new to a minimum-wage custodial crew, learning that the most important thing, when you clean the headquarters of a multibillion-dollar corporation, is the executive washroom.

The questions are not: Are floors swept? Are counters and toilets clean?

The real questions are: Is the trash empty, even if there were only three paper towels in the bin?

(they don’t want to see trash)

Did you wipe away any fingerprints left when you opened the shiny chrome stall doors?

(they want you to be invisible)

And, is the water in the toilet bowl a reassuring, disinfectant-blue?

No? We’ve no time. They don’t pay us enough to stay any longer. Night janitors got to hustle to the next job.

Just spritz some blue in there, let’s go.

(they don’t want to see)

(they’ll never know)

More at http://annakander.com.

Cecil | Roy Pullam

August 18, 2023 / Poetry Website / corporate greed poems, fighting against injustice poems, poems about social justice, social justice poems, workers' rights poems / Leave a Comment

His was the voice
Of an avenging angel
Calling out the greed
The wrongs
Of men
Who amassed capital
Without regard
For workers
The crowd leaned forward
Accidental utterances
Escaping their throats
As he continued
To express
His righteous wrath
Reminding laborers
Of past transgressions
And of the shaky ground
Of the possible reversals
Labor was facing
The preacher
Boiled up in him
As he reminded them
Of a cause
They had won
Of the sacrifices
Miners had made
To secure their livelihood
How unity
Was their only buffer
Against the wrongs
Of safety standards
Undermined
By the pursuit
Of quick profits
Over the health
And being
Of workers
Of lax inspections
By men
Seduced by perks
Enabled by hateful legislation
Paid for
By coal lobbyist dollars
Of pensions and insurance
Pulled from the hands
Of disabled miners
Broken by long days
In the darkness
In the depths
Of the mines
Of his willingness
To go to jail
To face the danger
Once again
To assure their futures
Some now rising
From their seats
In response
To his indictment
Charged with a furor
Their resolve
Matching his
His job done
He reminded them
Once again
Of solidarity
Their only hope
The applause deafening
He waved a thanks
For their approval
And returned
To his seat

Standing at the Edge of the World | Joan Leotta

August 15, 2023 / Poetry Website / corporate greed poems, environmentalism poems, poems about social justice, reactionaryism poems, social justice poems / Leave a Comment

I stand at the edge of the world.
You may think the world is round:
“What comes around, goes around.”
But in these last days, sinkholes
of horror have opened up.
High tides, high winds
fill the hole
until water spills out
racing across empty spaces
in my heart,
rolling across my flat, flat earth
stopping just before the fires,
just before spilling over the edge
where I stand, sweating in the
heat of the flames.
Other winds whip up the fire
exploding sparks that devour
greenery, turning air into hellish heat.
Flames race to where the water stops
threatening to dry up what hides in
those black holes.
Earth shakes with anger
at their efforts
spewing lava as argument.
How long will it stay
together? If it were round
it would burst apart
So I remain, alone
wondering if
all is truly flat while
listening to the wind
whose bluster tells me
he is sure that he,
alone, is in command.

More at http://www.joanleotta.wordpress.com.

Uneven Ground | Roy Pullam

August 14, 2023 / Poetry Website / corporate greed poems, poems about social justice, social justice poems, worker exploitation poems, workers' rights poems / Leave a Comment

She walked beside him
He carrying a sign
He could not read
With no education
Offered in a coal camp
Where ignorance
Was a tool
That made mining
The only alternative
In maintaining
Low wages
And poor working conditions
The explosion at Clay
Was the last straw
The company
Owning the only store
Paying in script
That never covered
The weekly
Food order
The company housing
Never tended
Matchboxes
With thin walls
That let the cold in
But never
Kept the rats out
A company doctor
Who turned a blind eye
Never seeing
That malnutrition
Was an enemy
To the working man
Ill children
Sick all winter
But now
Fear stoked the man
Fear of weak timbers
Gas pockets
That carbide lamps
Could ignite
They walked
Slow circles
Around the entrance
Of the mine
With little hope
To win
Union protection
Just knowing
The law and time
Were not
On their sides
That thugs
And the national guard
Would come
Beating their solidarity
And their heads
Until in fear
Until in desperation
Starving families would yield
Their leaders abandoned
Jobs lost
Thrown from company housing
Denied entry
To the company store
Blacklisted
He shared the fate
Of other organizers
Stooges betraying
Friends and family
Leaving his wife and child
With his father-in-law
Riding the rails
Only to find
An unwelcoming mine owner
Well aware
Of his union devotion
A black ball
He could not lift
Or roll away
Another victim
Crushed under the wheel
Of avarice
Owners who sang hymns
On Sunday
But left the robbed and beaten
By the roadside
On their way
To the bank