Poetry

Alycia Vreeland

By

Jon Vreeland

I Wonder If They’ll Be Mad?

…for bringing them into a world that depends so much on people

who care so little?

I wonder if they’ll be mad when they hear the shameless lies from

the shameless people who are rich and play God; then ask me why

we live in such a place but don’t have an answer:

where the wages are 4x less for harder working women

who receive dirty looks

threats

prejudgements

land in poverty and fear another man’s manipulative charm and

attempted suicides from living in fear of scum like Harvey Weinstein

and his tight lipped crew;

(a man so … powerful? … people looked away when he assaulted

woman after woman?)

I wonder what they really think, knowing the 45th president of the U.S.

has been to court over sexual assault 15 times?

What about how the real thieves of the real America are the head honchos?

How the affluent

will never

become

poor

jailed

properly punished no matter what for terrible crimes due to the

sad reverence of wealth

greed

lust,

a need for material religion?

So I wait for them to tell me they hate me for subjecting them to a place

with such immorality,

such poison

such brainwashing tactics for the idea of personal gain and influence

and I will tell them I tried, that we didn’t have cable

for that very reason,

just DVDs to elude the venom the best we could

“And the everyday people in the everyday world we can’t hide from”

(Unless you want to be a recluse like JD Salinger,

or a hermit who lives deep in the woods where the

bird’s fly only at night, and nobody is forced to trade

sexual favors for

fame

fortune

death

shame).

I wonder if I failed as a father, by assuming the U.S. was the place to be?

Jon Vreeland

Jon Vreeland is a writer of prose, poetry, plays, essays and journalistic articles. His memoir “The Taste of Cigarettes: the memoir of a heroin addict” will publish May 22, 2018 on Vine Leaves Press, Australia. Vreeland lives in Santa Barbara and is married to artist Alycia Vreeland. He has two daughters, Mayzee and Scarlett. Vreeland has not touched heroin in almost 4 years. You can read more of Vreeland’s work on his website.