Who has little, let them have less

https://portside.org/2014-01-23/who-has-little-let-them-have-less
Portside Date:
Author: Marge Piercy
Date of source:
Monthly Review - January 2014

The hatred of the poor, is it guilt

gone rancid? That the rich have

so much and still conspire to steal

a baby's medicine, a woman's

life, a man's heart and kidney.

When those Congressmen talk

of people who are counting

their last change for gas or eggs

choosing between cold and hunger

they snarl. How dare we exist?

If they could push a button,

if they could war on the poor

here at home as they do abroad

directly with bombs instead of

legislation, think they'd hesitate?

The righteous anger fermenting

in them boils over in cuts to what-

ever keeps people alive. They punish

those who have little with less:

a vast legal bus to run us over.

[Marge Piercy is the author of eighteen poetry books, most recently The Hunger Moon: New & Selected Poems, 1980-2010 from Knopf. Her most recent novel is Sex Wars (Harper Perennial) and PM Press has republished Vida and Dance the Eagle to Sleep with new introductions.]
 


Source URL: https://portside.org/2014-01-23/who-has-little-let-them-have-less