the leftovers

like passengers on the plane who didn’t die in the crash
they twitch with guilt & hope that they will able to stay
one more day
on the sinking ship,
because to be swimming out there
amongst the unemployed
amongst those in the empire who have been
flushed down the fucking drain
(no matter how many years they have slaved away
doing whatever it is that they had done
no matter how hard they had worked &
no matter how much their family, their friends or
their whole life depended on it)
is a fate that they just didn’t count on
when they believed in the
american dream---
now they sit with each other &
wait for the pep-talk
which will be spewed forth from the
carnivorous teeth still dripping with blood,
the vultures who fly out to feast,
those who relish in the empty seats &
the absence of one more salary
which the corporation will no longer have to supply---
funny thing is,
after all that has happened in just this one day,
one of today’s survivors of this colossal layoff
has the audacity to claim that when a new person is in the
white house
that all these problems will wash away---
somehow still believing in the system,
this brainwashed, sell-out, zombie
asks their neighbor (themselves sitting in disgust at the very sight of
all the most recent carnage)
who they are gonna vote for---
the person turns to them saying
“i’ve never voted…i don’t believe in this bullshit system…never has there been a day where it was more obvious” &
the zombie responds as if they had not listened to one word,
as if they were completely unaffected by the whole real scenario
that had just transpired, saying
“you know, if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain…you do know that, right?”