Poem: Facts

These are not theories, conjecture, reckless reckoning, supposition,

hyperbolic hypotheses crooked as a triangle untangled by Isosceles.

These are facts.

Yet

many of us prefer to pretend instead that the precise contrary is not a fairy tale but a fairly stale debate

over which the irrational fantastical religious folks can masturbate.

So I shall spell these facts out plainly, unpoetically,

in a style unworthy of high-minded cats like Miles and Jimi and roots rock Marley.

Let’s just say it.

These are facts.

No matter what the President of the United States of America does or does not say, what Turkey did to Armenians 100 years ago is properly described as genocide.

No matter what scientist who have whored themselves out to the oil industry say (or don’t say), wastewater extraction and disposal from fracking causes earthquakes.

No matter how strenuously the NRA might object, comprehensive scientific surveys show that homes with guns are substantially less safe (for the homeowner) and more likely to host a suicide than homes without guns.

Fact: the purpose of guns are to kill things, often human beings.

Fact: manufacturing guns, ammunition, and all the other accoutrements of the firearms lifestyle is a fabulously remunerative method of profiting from the miseries of others.

Fact: you will serve less jail time when you kill other human beings while wearing a uniform.

Fact: you will serve less jail time if you launder billions of dollars of drug cartel money than if you’re arrested with $100 of drugs in your pocket.

Fact: everything we abhor — segregation, anti-Semitism, internment camps, Jim Crow, Native American slaughter, slavery — all those stains upon our national soul were once perfectly legal and socially acceptable.

Fact: almost every behavior that we today call illegal and criminal — killing people, for example — is carried out “legally” by someone with power on his side and ideology in his heart.

Fact: when you collect 14 years worth of newspapers, enough empty pizza boxes to fill your living room and 72 cats you’re called a “hoarder.”

Fact: when you do the same thing with money and capital you’re called a success.

Fact: the trillions of dollars owned by American corporations and stashed in overseas banks would build millions of toilets, schools, hospitals, shelters, and dignity for billions of human beings who are not called a success.

Fact: there’s no such thing as a decent, kind-hearted, compassionate billionaire.

Fact: most people don’t aspire to be decent, kind-hearted and compassionate, they aspire to be rich.

Fact: the happiest people in the world seek complete emancipation from voluntary servitude; instead of money, we dream of being Freedomaires.