Death And Tax Avoidance

Are two facets of life
in capitalist societies,
where everyone wants to ignore,
and then for good measure ignore
how they ignore, how the wealthy
see it as their duty to avoid paying tax,
the more to make being rich a state,
and status above The State, autonomous.

Whereas death, and grief at the loss of life,
is harder to avoid where it happens
though people will do their best to try,
by sentimentalising loss
and buying the comfort they want
as if relief from grief could be bought
'off the shelf'. Whatever it is they think
they are buying, they don't know themselves.  

 

The Frailty Of Certainty

A friend wrote to me; 'I am glad I have never been brainwashed'.
Amazed at how blithe he was, I wrote nothing back.
I was too much in awe of his surety. In some uncertainty
I asked myself what it meant to be brainwashed.
I realised that at some point I had been.
I had lived in worlds where the words
I had to use automaticallly meant the opposite
of what was commonly understood, and pointing this out
with conviction was deemed to be deeply cynical.
I had seen how my family relationships were malformed,
beyond repair. I also knew that the brainwash
would fade if worked on. If I left it far enough behind
in another life it would rinse out.
To depart from it was the only cure.
I felt wiser for remembering that it did happen
and better still for learning how I had gotten over it.