disaster voyeur

by Roberto Lavidez

disorder and despair for

the irreparably destitute

cannot be concisely

condensed into a nutshell

unattainable bread

peace and land

challenge the validity of

the most venerable realities

scorning the unfettered

freedom to think and

dimming the lights of

the enlightenment

to throw oneself

intelligently into the

complexity of materiality

combing out all the

knots and conundrums

if shot through with

contradictory urges

and rationalizations

and a culpable lack

of empathy for the poor

would be treading on 

an endless series 

of pot holes and

deep corrugations

charting a place kept

in the dark until the

bulldozers move in

to carve out a 

vast receptacle

of wretchedness

thieves and cheats

have all been among

bedfellows of disaster

groupies and peeping

toms of calamities

sycophants massaging

destitution of the land

after long years of

colonial rule

racing toward

superfluous riches

under hardened feet

the regime reaches

the masses with

boondoggles

white elephants

and costly delusions

beyond remedy

the unmetaphorizable

bondage of the victims

and the grief of the

vanquished appealing

to the lowest instincts

to purge existing

institutions of its

most flagrant inner

contradictions

while keeping 

a watchful eye on

its own blindness

©robertolavidez2013