Poetry: American Gods

Beating on iron and digging out coal
The wiping of sweat and the dying of souls
Thousands of ants that were trapped in a glass
While men with cigars did nothing but laugh

They wore black and pinstripes
They rose to the top
They puffed on cigars
And they paid off the cops
Now they are legends
The barons of old
But they have not gone
Infamous, and still cold

Digging out ditches and coughing on dust
Now vying for pennies and begging for crusts
They had broken their chains and escaped into light
Cushioned and well-fed until they lost the fight

There once a dream
It was called "middle class"
But it was a dream,
And thus, it couldn't last
The barons stole out from the night
With new faces
And erased all the gains
That the poor made in paces

Minimum wage with a family of four
Yelling and screaming, but getting no more
Voices ignored by the men with cigars
Who control 99 and the food and the cars

They laugh and they bicker
But they lack any care
If it is not making money
Then it is out of their hair
Because they have already won
Through the decades of fraud
And now they wear the masks
of American Gods

But God is design
The design of mere man
And like in decades past
He can change once again
If the peddlers are finally
Allowed once more to see
Then perhaps they can
Overthrow the "gods"
When they please

Ignorance and Senselessness are the new Knowledge
Despite the record number going to college
But a spark lights a fire which bursts into flames
And devours the wall between what is and what became

There is a future
And though it looks bleak
The future can change
For those who so seek
The God that you know
Can morph once more
Benevolent or Vengeful
To settle the score

Because God is in man
Not just at the top
Not just in the suits
With cigars and cops
He is in all
And in every intention
He could be the credit for
Every invention

But the invention of lying
And the invention of fraud
Does not befit the title
of American God
So if one was to seek
To overthrow their domain
He must simply look left and
look right and again
Because all around me
And all around you
Are the American Gods
Whose souls are true