Another Man's Meat

Technologically inundated
Our whole lives wasted
Playing mule or driver
Scrambling
Scrounging
For another dollar
Another penny
When capitalism has taken over
Everything
And all we know

“Can we turn a profit?
Can we make a dime?
Well, if not, I’m sorry
But I just don’t have the time!”
Corporate louses
Like blood-heavy ticks
Draining the life
Out of anything
Everything
They can latch onto-

Greed, avarice
Keeping up with the Joneses
Gluttony
And overconsumption
The lust for power
And other things
To have a semblance of control
Over the masses

Preying upon the sloth
Of the populace
And their unwillingness
To stand up
To rise against
Because
“It’s always been this way”
Or
“What can I do to change it?”
For fear of incurring the wrath
Of their overlords
Who already demand
Their pound of flesh
Cut away from the people
To settle their debts

And round and round
The cycle goes
In a widening gyre
This cycle of death and decay
And rebirth seldom
Just corruption piled atop
More of the same
And everyone must eat
Dog-eat-dog
The strong prey upon
The weak
And the helpless
Until they in turn
Become the very thing they preyed on
To be devoured
By something younger
And more agile

As it has always been
Since the dawn of man
And the source of
Man’s inhumanity to man
Has always been
And always will be itself
For mankind
Is kept alive
By bestial acts

As it has been
As it will be
One man’s flesh
Is another man’s meat