The Cost of Capitalism

a poem by Jennifer Carmichael, SA

It haunts me

Where ever I go

I see it

In every coke can

In every police car

In every national flag

The cost of living

The expense of life

Slaughtering of people

Chains too tight to escape

Hopes of a nation

Coerced into consumption

Whipped into submission

Prohibition

Forcing a nation

Underground

Into darkness

Into poverty

Into criminals

The crown takes everything

Leaves nothing

For the poor

For the sick

For the hungry

Yet they smile

They hold their heads high

In glory

The crooks of capitalism

Wave their flags in pride

As their people fall

Sick, poor, hungry

Dead

Consumerism

The dark force of the government

The evil of the world

The drug of the people

The death

Of our brothers and sisters

Our fathers and our mothers

Our children

Our children’s children

Its there

Through birth

Adulthood

To death

Destruction

With every coke can we drink

In every police car we ride

In every national flag we wave

Us, the working class

Suffer

The shallow pockets

Of nationalist

Of employers

Of councils

In their comfortable leather chairs

Of glory

And greed

And we work our fingers to the bone

Bleeding

For 5o years

For a chance to retire

Only to beg for mercy

From the rulers of our country

To live

To die

Broke

Penniless

Nothing to leave behind

And the next generation

Will suffer

As we have

As we did

So will they

The constipation of our leaders

Nothing more then a number

Nothing more then a dollar sign

Forced into submission

By prohibition

Capitalism

Consumerism

And any ism

They can find