New July Poetry--let me have it!

I’ll Take Manhattan

Roaming among the mendicants
I snap my pictures
of the New York skyline

Ignoring the homeless
I hit all the districts
with trendy hot spots

Deflecting mental illness
I hobnob with the glitterati
on Fifth Avenue

Ambling hand in hand with my love
Bypassing the shirtless man
Sleeping by the gutter

Gentrifying my world
while the rest of it
withers with no shelter

Gordon Stamper, Jr.
July 21, 2018

*****
America the Middle Rate
Here’s to the boorish
the victors of our age


Whatever trite thing
you were taught about
hard work
education
or the meek


Has now faded into
the privileged
the connected
self-centered over selfless
blessed are the bullies


Wealth kick starts
the anti-bullying campaigns
while their young
tell yours togo back where they came from

And I wish they could
back to a land of opportunity
where the dreamer could be rewarded
but that would take a time machine
back to 2016


Or earlier
depending on
what state you live in


We can vote
we can fight for
freedoms
wages
dignity lost


But for now
behold the land of the also ran
the has-beens and
the home of the selfish


Gordon Stamper, Jr.
July 26, 2018