David Somerset
Three Poems
Ride the Train
no memory,
never got on this train
this ride’s not bound for glory
the rattle speaks a different story
traveling in insulation to oblivion with
sudden stops for shock and awe
this ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco
they’re not fooling around
mind your obsessions
under oppression, you follow directions
its war, war on poverty
turned war on the poor
the war on crime
wasting more than time
millions lost and imprisoned
each, a life sentence in limbo
promises flood in promising nothing
we never see anymore
only plenty of less, humanity
more suffering in our dispair
no child left behind
unless they are poor
urban children all left behind
their school bus long gone and hard to find
hope another wasted dream
trash, thrown away
all those aspirations
buried under urban decay
deception is whatever they say
corruption, each and every day
souls are burnt offerings
to national decline
broken buildings collapsing
with broken windows Into broken dreams
of children born with two chances
slim and none
their early end
a tragedy already begun
they will have to trade their hope for dope
as they run from the guns
Crime and Punishment
In New Zealand, the Maori
practice restorative justice.
Their guiding principles are
restitution and rehabilitation.
Offenders return back home to their culture
with community support and a welcome song.
Don’t expect a welcome song from us.
We don’t really want you back,
if you’re an offender,
Just expect to be thrown away despite the cost.
A cell in New Jersey State Prison costs $53,000 per year,
while a seat at Princeton University is only $47,000.
Our justice, just vengeance disguised in good intentions.
Here, offenders can’t vote, hold a job, support their families or themselves.
There only available employment we left them IS crime.
Crime and punishment for some is crime and rewards for others.
The poor are punished continually by a criminal system run by those most criminal.
Oddly corrupt, yet inept correction system empires,
without any corrections, except in corporate directions.
The warehouse for millions of the miserable victims of the wars:
on drugs, on crime, on poverty and on each other.
All wars by design and for profits all the time.
The joke is the criminal justice system;
the system is criminal, with no justice or liberty for all.
Origin of Evil
I was talk’in to Justice
and he said to me
I don’t know what to do
with the evil we see
even the darkest forest
had to grow from a seed
I said, how does this evil
ever come to breathe
British soldiers come to their home
in the middle of the night
take an Irish family’s father
then shoot him on sight
when hearts are wounded
souls begin to bleed, and
when no kindness or love remain
only evil’s left , to breathe
when our shock and awe
kills thousands on TV
they see their family slaughtered
while we set them free
when fourteen year old boys
shoot each other dead in the hood
the police calls them gang members
and the media says they’ere no good
when terrorists murder innocents
in the heart of a city
survivors become sworn enemies
with neither mercy, or pity
when the wealth of nations
destroys the homelands of the poor
and leaves them in the crosshairs
of starvation and war
when children die by the thousands
with a needle in their arm
collateral damage of the war on drugs
of greed and harm
when the police shoot the people
and cops die in the night
its injustice and murder in the streets
and the city is never alright
when revenge is still more revenge
and clerics teach the children hate
then, the killing has no end,
only chaos in a failed state
when hearts are wounded
souls begin to bleed, and
when no kindness or love remain
only evil’s left , to breathe
we came to see
no Prince of Darkness around
and we, the only
fallen angels to be found
Dave lives in Salem, MA with his wonderful wife and a small disagreeable dog. He writes and performs poetry, stories and music at local open mics and features. He is a member of the Salem Writers Group and the Tin Box Poets. Dave’s work has been published in the Merrimack Mic Anthology, The Whisper and The Roar, Oddball Magazine, Ugly Writer, The Brave and the Reckless, and The Lily Poetry Review. Dave has also published a Chap Book: Among Poets Tonight.