Bad Masters Make Terrible Servants

I was raised in an authoritarian society
that declared itself to be Liberal.

All the open mindedness was applied
to forgiving how married men misbehaved
due to the long term effects of alcohol,
rather more than how anyone else lived.

Men were top dogs in homes
that only they could own,
and they made sure
that where they went in public
felt like home as well.

They made everyone
who was unlike them
their undeclared servants.

It had been this way 'since before the war'.
Which war?
History taught us to not care, just serve.

But obedient as we were
to the man who was obedient
to the effects of alcohol,
we served the most immediate master
we could in the hope that later masters
would not like the first we had
-between thought word and deed
he was self centred, illogical, and absurd
often with a mirthless sense of humour,
and blind to the nth degree about it.

As an adult I learned all too late
that 'A man cannot serve two masters'
-as if all along my choice
was between God and Mammon.

But from long experience I knew;
as long as bad masters are obeyed
they will accept weak service
and won't care how inconsistently
or with what anger' they are seen;
as long as there is no end of their rule.