insurgent49

Septrmber 22, 2006
Privelege
by Brian Anderson, insurgent49

What is privilege
But a four letter word that
A poor man flings to a rich man

For it is privilege that grants a rich man
     a summer day free from work, to sunbathe and play
And yet it vanishes for the poor man strapped within a minimum wage

Privilege that gives the rich man
     leisure and freedom to choose between buying new furniture, clothing and shoes
And yet it is absent while the poor man holds out his hand for a meal at the soup kitchen

But what is privilege to you or me, we average joes?
Is it your skin
Is it your parents that you have two?
Is it your education
Is it your wealth so you can do whatever you want to do at this precise moment?

     Privilege can be guilt
     Privilege can be time
     Privilege can be health
     Privilege can be knowledge, clean air, and protection

Privilege is your door getting open ten seconds before everyone else
     So that you may see the maze
Because you had an extra ten dollars, slipped into the right palm

Privilege is writing this poem
     In a bed
With my own sheets my own pillow to rest my head

Privilege is having time
     To realize my responsibility
The responsibility to use my time wisely so all may be protected and safe

Privilege is having time
     To mourn my loved ones and to mark their passing even after five years
Instead of hiding from bombs that have been a continuous rain

Privilege is having a name and knowing I am missed
Privilege is having my name not having an X
     On a paper or a marble stone
     So that only willows and daffodils mark my passing
          Which is a privilege that my neighbor did not have
          Where was he buried again?

- Columnists -

Editor's Desk
by Aaron Selbig

Rank and File
by Nova Stubbs

Red Alert
by Soren Wuerth

Alaskan In Exile
by Neil Zawicki

The
Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford

- also from this writer -

This Reality of America

My Forefather's Plea

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After Ginsberg's America