You 'Are' An Accomplice Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

You 'are' an accomplice!
If you've ever advocated hatred,
With a division that inspires.
And you've expressed a choice,
To have certain voices unrepresented...
In the mix as they wish,
To live and be as they see fit.
You 'are' an accomplice,
To an uprising of violence...
Chaos and confusing conflict.

You 'are' an accomplice,
If there has been an increase...
Of hunger and homelessness,
On city streets.
With a rise of apartheid,
Excused and dismissed.
Oh you 'are' an accomplice to all of it!

If your choice has been to choose,
To ignore the suffering and abuse...
Of your fellow human beings,
Seen as victims of misdeeds...
Implemented with such ease.

You 'are' an accomplice.
You just refuse to admit it.

If you enjoy a life that is loved and liked,
That is not afforded to everyone...
Because of your own selfish preferences,
You wish to highlight.
You 'are' an accomplice,
If you deny similar appetites.

Whether you are in debate with interests,
With others satiating their familiar greed.
Or whether you are secretly in discreet...
Sabotaging someone unknown,
Passed upon urban streets.
But there you are seen greeting...
In the backyards of those,
Not aware of your ideologies.
Or your plans to impose.
You 'are' an accomplice...
Whether or not you agree.

You 'are' an accomplice,
If there has been an increase...
Of hunger and homelessness.
On city streets.
And a rise of apartheid,
Excused and dismissed.
You 'are' an accomplice to all of it!

How can one be a part...
But yet declare not to be,
A product of the whole?

How can one eliminate,
A sentence read from an epic.
To declare it to be insignificant,
To the outcome and the plot!

Believe it or not...
Every piece of the epic read,
Determines the deliciousness...
Or the tastelessness perceived,
Stirred in that pot.
Believe it or not!