Bad Math
Included in the "Into the Fire, Volume I: The Pressure" collection.
This piece is part of Into the Fire: Volume I, The Pressure but I’ve made it free because it feels especially relevant right now. If this resonates, know there’s more like it behind the paywall… just deeper, rawer, and waiting.
How callous a system that views her people
And decides who’s gold and who’s trash
While we project our thoughts and beliefs
Our future is burning to ash
Weaponizing opinion, throwing shade around
We never look in the mirror
Too busy clowning on everyone else
Can I make it any clearer?
How short-sighted are we
To believe all the lies?
All the lessons we learned
Should’ve opened our eyes
To add is to multiply
Not to subtract
Nor to divide
This premise is cracked
Add real help to the masses
Empower them to stand
Through that they can multiply
The power in their hands
And add to the whole
Which enriches us all
Stability appears
And at last, makes landfall
With all of us standing
And adding to the pot
It changes our future
Not a little, but a lot
Let’s flip on a dime
And see the reverse
By subtracting help
The future is cursed
No help for the masses
No help for the ill
No help for the young
Future prospects are nil
Aimless wandering in streets
No home to go to
Illness takes hold
Addictions accrue
To anything that will make
This life livable
Even those things which
Are unforgivable
A cell becomes home
Steel bars for a view
More subtraction takes hold
Of their time and our due
When all of this could’ve been
Stopped at the start
Give freely of help
We must open our hearts
Not one of us made it
On grit alone
We all had support
Help our futures be sown
Let’s start with our lessons
Given to our youth
Yes, smartness and thinking
But, most importantly truth
Author’s Note:
We’ve been sold the lie that subtraction is strength: cutting services, ignoring suffering, and calling it survival of the fittest. Bad Math is my response to that lie. This poem is a reminder that we rise by adding, by supporting, by building together. None of us got here alone. If we want a better future, the math has to change. — Liora
voice through fire | www.liorawrites.com
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