Contributor: Richard Hartwell

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Masses of humanity,
bubbling crust of society’s
foundation and bedrock
on which elitism tramples.

Smoldering anger
created by hypocrisy,
stench of semantics
used to control others.

Heed the admonition:
adversity can be a teacher,
with a whip and a club,
or a kiss and a prayer.

Socially unchained, literally,
life lessons are unchanged;
learned helplessness is still
too universal to ignore.

You have become grasping,
gasping, gripping the Western fact –
your aspirations are worthwhile,
if you just stay in my shadow.

Animal perseverance –
human hunger for survival.


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Rick Hartwell is a retired middle school (remember the hormonally-challenged?) English teacher living in Southern California. He believes in the succinct, that the small becomes large and the instant contains eternity.