Iron Math And Society Poem by Lonnie Hicks

I have so easily accepted these pulley ropes
hoisting my self's achievements for all to see.

Fames' Face
applauds Ambition's ends

and I am promised
to be uplifted
to Security and Prosperity;

Potentialities and Promises
Possibilities gleaming,

Glowing Future-Beacons
calling for Hard Work
Sacrifice and Ideals

to deliver me and mine,

where Deliverance
sits with Happiness
and Contentment
and presumably Love
and Friends too.

A lot here recommends.

But the Pulley Ropes
remind me
simultaneously,
cruelly,
paradoxically
of the zero sum-
one up for me
often is one down for thee,

Iron Math and Society,

algebraically;
gainless goals for me
pains for thee
nothing is the total
algebraically.

Iron Math Indeed.

Competition's seeds
equal
I win
you lose
equally.

Sad outcome for you
and less clearly,
also
for me.

The Competitive Engine roars
and devours the Participants
who, in riding Success's Whirlwind
pay the Conductor's Fee in Ideals Foregone.

We grapple with Horizons
cut from Competitive Cloth
ignorant of other
Choices
Yet Unseen.