Someone Influential Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Three piece suited and tied crooks,
Are becoming too comfortable
Wearing flip flops with sox...
And getting breakfast, lunch and dinner too,
With cable nonstop
Behind bars for executive crimes!

They don't mind sweeping cell blocks with mops.
Or chatting around the clock,
About the dirty cops who stopped them,
To pocket hush money for their silence!

These are the days...
Hoodlums are being paid,
And treasures are being stashed...
As the middle class pays up the ass
To conceal these vermin,
Doing 'rehabilitated' time
Behind barbed wire...
Safe and secure in concrete condos!
Undeterred and being nourished.

And when these thieves are released...
They are booked again!
But this time,
They preach on stages in forums
On how they have paid the price,
For sacrificing their freedom...
To thunderous applause and standing ovations!
As chauffeurs await to whisk them away,
To negotiate with agents
Over book deals and movie rights to consider!

And these messages are delivered to our youth!

'Stay in school!
And one day you too...
May meet someone influential! '