Success

I'm stumped these days

by what people call success.

The definition seems to have narrowed

to only mean individual financial wealth

while the world burns away

stripping humanity from the human race.

I don't see that as successful,

I see it as selfish,

it gives me secondhand embarrassment.

Imagine not accounting for variables like

child welfare, starvation, or pollution

when determining whether or not

it was a life well lived.

I would be ashamed,

but instead I just feel alone

like the last sane pulse

in the heartbeat of an insane world.

~~~~~~

Thank you so much to everyone who reads my poetry. I know it's often sad or absurd, but it helps with catharsis more than I could ever express. I am truly and deeply heartbroken to be an American today. I am embarrassed to live in a country that so flagrantly hates the most vulnerable. There is no moral or ethical argument that could ever justify the current political landscape. It is pure greed, ego, cruelty, and senseless destruction.