JEREMY NATHAN MARKS

★ ★ ★ ★

POETRY

Socialism’s Coming

‘. . . those who possessed something, united in a common terror.’
-Alexis DeTocqueville

Socialism’s coming
but it won’t be what we thought.

The young know there’s no fulsome work.
It’s not how they won’t
but that they can’t.

Sure, you say
flip burgers!
wash dishes!
dig ditches!
But have you seen who gets hired?

Even summer jobs have been outsourced
to the global market place.

Socialism isn’t just for
the unwashed anymore
it’s for the suburban whites
in their Goodwill Ts
who still borrow their parents’ car keys

It’s for the middle-aged mother and father
of two, three or four
who can’t balance their check book anymore
since they buy such frivolous things
as extra Kotex pads and strong coffee for early mornings.

What used to be called capitalism
or free enterprise
has seen its demise
it runs second to the current order
which is despised

Since you paid too much for
your four-year degree
and can’t make a full-time wage
even at an advanced age

Since your Associate’s, your Bachelor’s,
your Master’s degrees
(we won’t even discuss the PhDs)
have only given you more debt than before
and no one hires on long term contracts—forget tenure!—anymore.

The bogey of being one with your hand out palm up
is coming your way
because you’ve watched Congress prefer employers
who’ve bargained your health insurance away.
They finance financiers
through rococo bills festooned with riders
printed in diminutive print
designed to make sure that more money is spent
filling campaign coffers and PACs with anonymous donors.

It is also true that suburbanites (mainly whites)
don’t know work like we knew it since
it’s not good business
to pay full-time when no one does
it’s not good business
to pay part-time when no one does
it’s not good business
to have human employees when no one does.

So, it’s prediction time:

Socialism is coming
it is practically here
and its color isn’t red anymore
but black on white
the banner of a digital password
awarded by the State
containing an account number
for direct payment

Of a Guaranteed Annual Income

Because the alternative is bread riots
manifestations
and lots of no longer polite, genteel patriots
who possess semi-automatic weapons.

Jeremy Nathan Marks is a poet, podcaster, amateur photographer and teacher living in London, Ontario, Canada. His poetry and pictures have appeared in many places including Lake, Muddy River Review, The Blue Hour, Front Porch Review, Jewish Literary Journal, Nomadic Magazine, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Morel Magazine, Green Writer’s Press, Eunoia Review, Vox Poetica, The Hopper, Word Fountain, Futures Trading Lit, and Writing for Peace. He has poems appearing in I-70 Review and Chiron Review later this summer. His podcast is entitled ‘Talking to Canadians.’