bones above the skin

85
people
own
half of
the world's
wealth.

and there
are children
in my neighborhood
wearing third
generation
hand-me-downs
with parents that
work two jobs each
and do side work
on the weekends
to get by.

most states are nearly
bankrupt.
the cost of healthcare keeps building.
the cost of rent is hiked up
so much that people
have moved in
with their extended
families.

and eighty five people
in the world
own
half of
the world's wealth.

there are two types of
sickness in the world.
one is to be physically
ill. the other is to be
mentally ill.
when the woman
down the street
has
eighteen cats,
we call her sick
for hording cats.
when the guy next door
has a home
overflowing
with garbage,
he would be
labeled as unstable.
but when someone
collects money
into the billions,
they are referred to
as thrifty,
as smart,
as wealthy.
when they are
actually quite
ill.

their minds are diseased
when they can horde that much
money. they
casually look at the world's
problems as not their own.
they turn a blind eye to inequality
and poverty
as if it were just
another pile
of shit,
mistakenly stepped in
on their way to
the bank.

and for some reason,
we envy them.
we want to be just like them.
but the problem is that
we'll never be able
to stand up to
their type of insanity.
it's because most of us
have a conscience.