Who has little, let them have less
The hatred of the poor, is it guilt
gone rancid? That the rich have
so much and still conspire to steal
a baby's medicine, a woman's
life, a man's heart and kidney.
When those Congressmen talk
of people who are counting
their last change for gas or eggs
choosing between cold and hunger
they snarl. How dare we exist?
If they could push a button,
if they could war on the poor
here at home as they do abroad
directly with bombs instead of
legislation, think they'd hesitate?
The righteous anger fermenting
in them boils over in cuts to what-
ever keeps people alive. They punish
those who have little with less:
a vast legal bus to run us over.
[Marge Piercy is the author of eighteen poetry books, most recently The Hunger Moon: New & Selected Poems, 1980-2010 from Knopf. Her most recent novel is Sex Wars (Harper Perennial) and PM Press has republished Vida and Dance the Eagle to Sleep with new introductions.]