Drowning in the Rising Tide

by Kevin E. Cleary

Oil prices keep finding new excuses to surge,
And this rising tide is only lifting yachts.
We’ve run out of welfare rolls to purge
The poor have become like flies the wealthy like to swat.

We buzz around now, from one low-end job to the next.
Can’t save a penny while they nickel-and-dime us
We get wacked on food, screwed on taxes, no respect
We get shooed away from the table nearly every time.

They treat us like bastard children,
but tell us to act like adults.
Their crimes never bring a siren,
except the media’s playful insults.

Who speak softly of a middle-class squeeze,
But we’re all getting trapped like sardines
As CEOs tap-dance on the lid with glee
Their social climbing comes from liens

On our property, and foreclosures to boot
us from the social ladder. Standing on
the top rung, they trickle-down black soot.
CEOs, the pros of every con.