The Fall

 
‘Twas a Garden
a Commons
of the many
not the few
 
then the few
stole the commons
bid the denizens
adieu
 
set us all
free
to work for
Simon Legree
 
*
 
Took away
our lands
so we became
just ‘hands’
 
turning into
property
marshes and
sands
 
‘Iron Law
of Wages’
the saw
of their
sages
 
history was
theirs
they rewrote
its pages
 
*
 
Serfs became
proles
all under
duress
 
counting for
nothing
and working for
less
 
it’s how
it got started
that was the
Plan
 
The Great
Devolution
The Great Fall
of (wo)Man
 
*
 
There’s no need
to grow
even less
to expand
 
where Commerce
is King
ill fares the
land
 
We can build
without lucre
we can thrive
without profit
 
let rats run
the rat race
it’s time to
get right
off it?
 
*
 
We’ve come
a long way
have travelled
so far
 
time to have
done
with both lucre
and war
 
serve Communal
Need
End the Empire
of Greed
 
when we let go
the lucre
we might get done
with war?
 
hitching our
wagon to
a far brighter
star

 
[© R.Kanth 2023]

 
Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (A Novel), A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse), and Farewell to Modernism (Political Economy Tract).