"Delete, Delete, Delete"

 

More deaths

More excuses

More status updates

More comments

         I’m right

                  You’re wrong

         It is the weapon

                  Fuck you

         Punching keys

         Angry

         Frustrated   

         Viciously vomiting vile

                           DELETE, DELETE, DELETE

         I understand

         Your fears bind your logic

         It is the weapon—and more

         Let’s find common ground

         Pausing at each letter

         Appeasing

         Calmer

         Weighing wary words

More deaths

More excuses

More status updates

More comments

         I’m right

                  You’re wrong

         Lives matter

                  Fuck you baby killer

         Gnashing teeth

         Pissed

         Wordless

         Shredding senseless shit

                           DELETE, DELETE, DELETE

         I understand

         Your reasoning rambles

         It is the weapon—and more

         Set aside the diversion—for another time

         Carefully staying focused

         Sensible

         Cogent

         Decisively data driven

More deaths

More excuses

More status updates

More comments

         I’m right

                  You’re wrong

         More guns? No way!

                  Fuck you BITCH!

         Away from keyboard

         Pulling hair

         Livid

         Annihilating aggravating assholes

                           DELETE, DELETE, DELETE

 Copyright 2018 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman 

         

        

                

"No Shame"

 

See this world  
            Revolving around you   
            ‘Cause you’re sooooo SPECIAL?   
                        A Disney Princess   
                                    Twisted on the inside    
                                    By your Hypocrisy 
            Your venomous spittle sprays 
                        And you shout your righteous indignation
                               Against those who sustain you, clothe you,      
                                     nurture you  
You—The Beggar—   
            Who bites up to the elbow   
                        Your ravenous maw congealed with  
                                    the flesh of the hands that feed you  

You carry No Shame  

                        For badgering, and belittling, and bullying  
                 No Shame   
                        For the lives you taint with your poison 
                 No Shame  
                        For the pain you reap  
            ‘Cause you’re sooooo SPECIAL— 
With this world  
            Revolving around you  

 

Copyright 2015 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

 

"Class of . . ."

Too lost to care  

            Too stunted to share   

Too lazy to learn

            Too drugged to yearn

Too behind to hope

            Too bitter to cope  

Too angry to grow

            Too blocked to know 

Too starved to thrive  

            Too damaged to strive 

 

Copyright 2014 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

"Wants VS Needs"

         I’ve read some pretty mean comments on social media recently. Insulting words lashing out, sometimes with no obvious reason for the inflammatory temper tantrums. Suddenly, a conversational steam turns ugly. I sit dumbfounded as I read through cruel, malicious responses from people I thought to be reasonable—and nice.

         Most of the time, I try to understand both sides of the issue. If I weigh in (many times I bite my tongue and keep away from my keyboard), I attempt to find factual support for the issue at hand. Sometimes I balance myself onto a middle ground. Occasionally, I respond with well thought out deliberation. Fortunately, I have a blog wherein I can pull together longer reflections.

         In my dream-state last night, I mulled through this-n-that in an effort to distill recent events into some kind of cohesive theory that applies to a bigger picture, and I tossed-n-turned myself into a dichotomy of wants versus needs.

         Many people state belief systems as though they are needs. They need to follow their religious doctrines.  They need to spank their children—and everyone else’s, too. They need to defund programs like education and welfare. They need to take care of their own—even if that means making decisions that harm others. They need to own guns. They need to stop abortion. They need to segregate themselves way from minorities. They need to prepare for Armageddon.

          Whenever these people speak out, they truly feel that these things are essential requirements for their safety and happiness—for their duty to family, or church, or country. Their insistence that things are needs lends a level of urgency and unreasonable panic to their daily lives. When they feel that these needs are threatened, they respond with illogical anger and boiling hostility. They view their world as always threatened by someone else encroaching upon or diminishing their basic needs and rights. It must be rough living with so much distress and disharmony.

         I wish I could wave a magic wand over these people and shift their mindset to the fact that all of these things are wants, and not needs, because the urgency and fear shifts dramatically with this worldview.

Copyright 2018 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman