On the Knocker

On the Knocker

I knock your door to see if you're ok,
to ask you if there's something I can do
that puts food on your table, feeds your kids,
protects you from the scourge of climate change.
Your answer is a stare of bewilderment
as I try to explain what I think is the cause
of our immiseration, our defeat;

the power of financial capital,
the gross inequalities of wealth,
the longest pay squeeze for two hundred years,
the greedy prowess of the oligarchs
that leads to war, displacement, refugees.
At this you seem to wake, Yes them, you say.
If I had my way I'd take 'em off at the knees.