Journal Entry Number III / Modern Greed | Teen Ink

Journal Entry Number III / Modern Greed

January 22, 2024
By King_KDA ELITE, Burlington, Washington
King_KDA ELITE, Burlington, Washington
111 articles 0 photos 33 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Numquam finitur, donec vita finiatur."
- K. D'Angelo Alexander


It would appear that we always want what we cannot have

And when we get it, we just want more

 

I have not but one simple ask:

Throw those habits out the door

 

Countries waging wars, over money, religion and land;

Sometimes just because they can

 

Let us make it our task

To think about what we're fighting for

 

Freedom? Fame?

What we believe in? Gain?

 

Why can we not end the pain,

For just a single day?

 

No war, no strife; just lay down the knife

 

And experience what we've been taking for granted:

Life

 

Just take a moment to think

Close your eyes to see

What our world could be

If people just believed

 

That we could all make a change

That this idea is not strange

 

What would it take?

For the world to realize

That in order for us to stay alive

We must end this "modern greed"

 

The human-race is a disgrace

Let that settle in

 

We suck, to put it in a simple phrase

But we have time to re-begin

 

Why does crime even exist?

Because of desperation?

Because people are sick?

Is this something we can fix?

 

It is, but we lack effort

"It would be too expensive to get everyone the help they need"

 

Yet decent kids like me get put behind bars,

While rapists, killers, all walk free?

 

Why are the prosecutors willing

To keep a young man in jail?

 

To win the case, get a conviction?

Modern greed

 

They don't care, that I didn't do anything wrong;

Someone said I did, and that's enough for them

 

My father sentenced one-hundred-eighty-eight years in prison,

For something no one can prove

 

Yet a White man did the same, but worse

And got fifteen instead?

 

Doesn't make much sense

 

"We don't have the resources to help all the mentally-ill"

But our prisons are always filled?

 

A quarter of those people shouldn't be there,

Another part wouldn't be if their illnesses were treated

 

Our media forcing opinionated-facts,

Propaganda, and belligerent lies down our throats

 

Not always, although

More often they do, rather than don't

 

A corrupt government, not just ours,

With too much power and control

 

This isn't what the Founding Fathers intended:

In their graves, they roll

 

It's how the Constitution is "interpreted"

Bent to whomever's will

 

Why aren't women equal to men?

Why are people hateful, and biased towards those with different-colored skin?

 

Why do the rich get richer?

When the poor barely get by?

 

To see the Bigger Picture,

We must see past the lies

 

There's naught but one person

I'd ever kill, that would mean something to me

 

His blood is cold, feelings chilled;

His name is Modern Greed


The author's comments:

Every poem I write starts out in my journal. So far, I have only written two actual entries that are not poetry.

Early this morning, I was trying to think of an idea for a poem, and just started to write.

This poem is somewhat free-style, in the sense that it is closer to a regular journal-entry than a poem.

This is why the format and flow are somewhat sporadic, and fast-paced like one's thoughts as they write.

Hence the title "Journal Entry No. III / Modern Greed." It is both a poem, and my raw thoughts.


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