Street Roots • July 15-21,2016
Poetry
Page 14
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stifled
By Preeti Yadav
Tasks oh so critical keep piling on,
When is the time to do without shame or guilt, what I want?
I suppose we must abide by the rules of these times we exist in
Living our entire lives responding to pretend emergencies
Sacrificing our dreams, relentlessly preparing for an insurgency
Why then do we act surprised, squawk and cry when catastrophe finally strikes?
How do we not realize that our fate of misery and self-loathing is self-fabricated?
Marked by ingenuity and greed and acts so vile
Bound by imaginary chains, we are not free or even alive
We willingly volunteer enslavement instead of choosing life
Our bodies tormented, moving aimlessly, void of a soul
Our minds demented, existing in survival mode
Attempting to preserve our sanity in this bedlam we call our world.
Our perceived reality as we see it make all else obsolete
Overflowing with superfluities, defined by scores of luxuries
Countless living beings, animals and trees, birds and bees
Sacrificed so we could remain confined in concrete houses with modem amenities
Laden with pesticides, unending supply of food and drinks and lavish furnishings
Somehow seem to make all the ugliness and sadness in this world worth it
Lives and minds stifled by surfeit, unable to move or breathe
Are we to blame for an existence so bleak?
Some may plea, we just got sucked into this vortex of life
Yes, but without a yawp or much resistance
Let’s not pretend we are naive or innocent
You and l are no ordinary beasts, predictable and weak
Miscreants of a unique breed, insatiable, stamped by greed
When offered superfluity, gladly swap our liberty, even minds and
souls
o
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Bud Clark Commons
Portland Rescue Mission
665 NW Hoyt Avenue
July 6............. 8-10 a.m.
July 20............ 8-10 a.m.
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July
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526 SE Grand Ave
July 13............ 8-10 a.m.
Clackamas County
Transition Center
2223 Kaen Road,
Oregon City
July 13............. 1-3 p.m.
July 27............. 1-3 p.m.
W Burnside
7............. 8-10
14............ 8-10
21............ 8-10
28............ 8-10
a.m.
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a.m.
Union Gospel Mission
3SW3rdAve
July 19............. 2-4 p.m.
July 26............. 2-4 p.m.
‘ACTUAL PHONE MAY VARY.