Agreement

It's strange to me how people act –
Some things assumed, some things are fact;
The clash of gifts, when true to form;
The swirled agreement – cash not norm.

I'd seen things work as I grew up
The infrastructure was enough
Good things got done with mothers round
But now? No time – no halls resound –

With chatty voices, homemade pies,
The endless touch of small surprise;
Now women work and forge ahead
From teenage years till time they're dead.

The church, no longer social core,
Has been the case – though something more –
It's paid employees, funding driven,
Folks volunteer when up in heaven.

I think it's time to strip right back
Some things now institutions lack
Within a culture resource stripped
Time, money, energy all ripped –

Away yet expectations still
Plod on amidst increasing swill –
The need without on constant rise
Resource within on its demise.

We fancy Yankee way of life
We'll have it, too, along with strife,
But center of their way is cash
With service sector rising fast –

“Why volunteer when you get paid?”
“Small cash I earn, low wages made.”
“To feed and clothe my kids today
I need to learn at least some pay.”

Let's jump right back when it was sad,
I mean way back when things were bad –
No weekends off, or holidays,
When days were long, and short the pay;

When meals were crusts, eked from the ground
The water bad, what little found;
Why, look on news reports tonight
Those scenes from famine, drugs, and fights.

The rules of cash economy
Are ‘more of this’ – destructively
“It cannot happen here,” you say?
I'd say you don't know history.

The gap between the rich and poor
Is shifting fast with each new rule;
“What rules?” You ask – why ‘golden rule’ –
You give me cash – I call you fool.

“It evens out, if given time;
Cycles rebound, watch rising line
Of growth, as graphed throughout the years.”
Maybe you're right – amidst the tears –

We do not live sustainably
Nor factor frail humanity
Who, not content to wait their turn,
Jump place in cue, for money yearned.

At first it's gray – twixt black and white;
Success feeds what's done out of sight
Then gray turns black, what's done's not right;
It won't be fixed without a fight.

Life now is gray –“Hey, lighten up”
“Work for the rich”, “Drink from their cup”
“Get all you can, can all you get
Sit on the lead, wreck all the rest.”

But mixed with black, white makes it gray;
We make agreements every day
Which are on old assumptions based
Before the structure was replaced.

How best to act in world that's new?
How best agree on work with you?
Gray time that's left, ’fore it turns black;
Can miles be gained along new track?

I can't do life for others now
My time’s too short, it's their game now;
Encounters new which rise each day
I'd like to use to find a way –

Take Gerber's process – “IQO”
Slow down a bit, recorded so
I leave a paper trail each day
So other folks can find their way.

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