Used That Way Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

I would like to be treated as an individual

and not as an anecdotal source

written up in a magazine a journal

of great repute reviewed by someone's peers

making the career of someone

far younger, even brilliant

or shown upon the screen

of the ultimate power point presentation Machine

making the scene as a sliver of the pie chart

though it's art Im sure of that, of a certain sort

to undergird someone's mission statement

so the voiceless can be heard and really

when does that ever happen but snap to it

to applaud the populations sewn in half

and magically restored; or those who manage them;

final theses by the score on the subject full of buzz.

my life having furnished details on the above

in places I myself would most likely

not be welcome, much less hired.

to earn another praise is perhaps the

action of saints. to use another's lifetime

to grind out statistical reports so you can

visit all the resorts

I cant have any mercy for.

or fellow feeling.

forgive me if I am wrong.

but all of us here not so collegially

really don't want our anguish mined

so you can flourish in the daily grind yourself

while we're on parade:

clear examples of everything

wrong with our country

so some say; or props of the progress you've made

while given props for throwing shade on us

in turning our lives around but

in the wrong lane. forgive me if I complain.

and may I just say, having found my own voice by myself

we just dont want to be used that way.

mary angela douglas 1 september 2019