A train derails,
but it doesn’t just do that.
A train is derailed,
no, not quite.
A train is neglected
but by whom?
A company neglects a train.
Shareholders prioritize profit over safety.
The president halts a rail strike.
The president prioritizes business over safety
(not realizing that safety leads to better business)
((actually, he probably just doesn’t care about workers)).
A company and its shareholders demand fast turnaround,
too fast
to guarantee safety.
Norfolk Southern and its shareholders crush a strike
with the help of Joe Biden
and force rail workers to check cars too fast,
while the workers have no sick days
and not enough money,
and the company uses billions to buy back stock
and line the pockets of the owners and shareholders,
and all this negligence
(in the name of profit)
derails the train,
ejecting volatile chemicals into the atmosphere
and decimating the ecosystem
in and around East Palestine, Ohio.
Officials claim that after a “controlled burn” of said volatile chemicals,
the area is now quote safe unquote.
Meanwhile, cops arrest journalists,
and visitors taking pictures of dead fish
are advised that they’ll be arrested
if they’re with any media outlet.
How the fuck do you sum up all of this disgusting fuckery?
Norfolk Southern murders Ohio ecosystem?
Anti-worker sentiment throws train off tracks?
Capitalism kills, again?
It’s getting old and I’m
getting tired, just like
they want me to be.
This system needs to go.
The Opportunistic Poet 