Hope In Small Packages

‘Budget, nudge-it, and judge-it’, quipped some guru of our finance
To differentiate for us our money – give us a chance.
‘We plan it out; we shift it round; we stand back and look again;
Depending on the volume of the opening, or worsening pain.

Like money is our time for us in how well we operate –
We budget out the hours we’ve got while standing at opening gate;
When things come up we jiggle around and let unexpected in;
But when catastrophe breaks in, we stand back and look again.

I think that opportunity and energy to fulfill
Is much like time and money here – a challenge, a choice, a will.
All three have caps at given times and force us to choose a road,
The only thing that varies is tenacity, which we hold.

All this plays out in larger scene, ‘economy’ called by some;
For there the winner takes the prize, while others are left with none.
In family life it’s called abuse, one partner gets all the gain
While other one pays out their hand, just like in a poker game.

Oh yes, there’s back and forth each day – appearance of even field,
But time and money and energy in end just one winner yield.
It’s how the game’s set up, you see, the ‘system’ is what it’s called –
It’s said that half the fun lies in the number that you can scald.

Of course this fact lies hidden ’neath a layer of subterfuge –
Of ponzi scheme, and slight of hand, ‘the process’, and ‘social rules’.
So most are left at end of day with vague and uneasy  thought,
That they’ve been had by others who like them into system bought.

So at the end of day we find the handling of our resource
Has left dry taste within our mouths and feelings of vague remorse.
It matters not what field we’re in – with finance, and time, and power,
It mostly to one winner goes – for others their hope turns sour:

Ten rock-bands play their hearts out while another not better than,
Sweeps to the teens’ attention riding wave of media fans;
A hundred writers spin their yarns designed to entrance our eyes
While one no better than the rest hits a list then takes the prize.

That’s fine – I have no problems with a winner who tops the day
My problem’s with a world laid out where the rest don’t get to play.
The winners don’t get to the top alone in this whirling wind;
Even if the winner wins, having not corners cut, or sinned.

Nor do I have a problem when in part of our social sphere
We have a place where this goes on for those holding process dear.
It’s just the view of life that says ‘all things must this way be lived’
’Cause kids like Kenyan ‘Mercy’ end in the grave like they’ve been shived.

Where’s hope in all this whirling swirl of race to get to the top
For common folk to live full lives – with meaning and purpose walk?
It comes for me in package small – rejection of larger scene
When we decide the life we want, then live out just what we mean.

We cannot stop the other folks who think that it’s all there is,
But we can mind our own affairs; and decide how this one lives;
Let go of being big success, with limelight and glory’s star;
And be the best of who we are – intent not extent, by Gar.

Nor can we change the context where we live out each hopeful day –
The system was not quickly formed, but slowly emerged this way.
But here within each context small we choose, and each choice adds up,
To a table where each one can come, and with hope, and each other, sup.

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