Since the Trains Left Appalachia III
By R. Gerard
I am oppression.
I am great and vast and secretive.
I am engrained in the literature of the weak and sear the minds of the
strong and intelligible.
I am ignorant and lazy I am stupid and destructive
I am oppression
I rape your sons, and make eyes at your daughters,
I charge you money to cash checks that go right back to credit collectors
and fraudulent insurers.
I pile you together in neighborhoods near polluting factories And there
are no grocery stores.
I build highways through your neighborhoods and pipelines through
your sacred land.
I poison your water and piss in your reservoirs because I hate you
I am oppression
I tell you that your salvation army bootstraps are too weak
I tell you that you do not work hard enough to qualify
I tell you that I do not care about your limited resources
I offer you limited access to freedom, at sliding scale cost when I feel
nice
I am oppression
I opened the mine for you good people, I cannot pay you any more
I cut your health benefits and give you lung cancer
I know that there are no whistles to be blown since the trains left
appalachia
I am oppression
I will not sit next to you on my public transportation, Besides I am only
riding for a newspaper picture of me on the bus
I audit you for missing a payment and seize your home
I build parks where homeless bums are not allowed
I expect you to be on time to work in the morning with no place to sleep
I fire you for having problems outside of
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