SERVANT

Servant of the people,
This is the idea of our government.
Of, by, and for
All the nation
In a democratic spectacle,
But one of theory only.
Ours is a dollar democracy,
A body of rich white men
Who want only to keep their jobs.
They are willing to save the majority
At the cost of 49 percent.
But 49 percent of people still have feelings
Still have hopes, dreams, needs, fears,
Views, lives, souls;
49 percent of people are still people,
Still people, still the people,
The sacred people who gave up their freedom of choice
Two hundred years ago,
Looking for something better.
But 49 percent of people can have their voice stripped away,
Throats ripped out by a swinging hundredth
Of a country that doesn’t understand what it is.
We can only watch,
Look on as our willing, elected servants
Act out their private agendas,
Slaves not to the public,
But to their own beliefs, their own greed.
For who is served
When representatives are bypassed,
Protests ignored,
The country thrown into a war
Against a nation thousands of miles
With no power outside its own borders?
Who benefits from this war,
This war to start all wars?
And who is served
When a hundred people are locked in a hole for three days,
Treated worse than animals,
Not allowed even to sleep,
All because of their placement in another nation
By the accident of birth?
Who is served when an unarmed group,
Expressing themselves
In the only way they have left
Is bullied, beaten, struck and shot by their protectors?
Who is served when an emaciated,
Ill nineteen year-old who desperately needed help
And committed no act of aggression is shot and killed?
Who was served by the blood that ran out of his
And so many other bodies?
How have we come so far
From such a beautiful ideal?
How did the servant become the murderer,
And armed protector of the pocketbook?
When did the servant take it upon itself
To decide just how much
Was too much freedom?
Our government has escaped all its responsibilities
Though it still retains our power of choice,
And there’s nothing I can do about it
Until 50 percent of this country
Realizes what they’ve become.