Two Poems

What my relatives believe

All they do is hate and destroy.
They invest in
guns and bombs
and discipline
focused on all that,
thinking it will
bring you salvation.
But they fail to
recognize the
power of our cooperative
peaceful efforts.
How you can convince
with a smile
and friendly technologies
and ideas
rather than
sheer brutality.


Abandon the City

I want to
abandon the city
now.
Ditch it and split.
Leave the murderers,
the violence,
and crime
behind.
Disappear, maybe,
into the woods or the mountains
or cross the river to New Jersey
where I was born,
where I should've remained.
There, the grass is still greener.
Here, there's no hope
among the blocks and blocks of shuttered warehouses and empty factories.
What did we do when we sent our manufacturing to China?
What can we do
to give these people hope
and something real to feed on?
Credit is only that,
credit,
and now the chickens have come home to roost.