Dirt-Flavored Cake

Four legs of staunch oak hold up the table

Forever it stands strong and supposedly stable

Getting a place there is one hell of a chance

Welcome to your place in this large, happy dance

From the upper crust to the even lowest mass

Are welcome here without division, without class

But wait, you got here and started in the chasms

Now the offenders above give you muscle spasms

In the head, in the torso, in all of the joints

All your pains, for them is racking up points

To be a member, to sit with all the rest

You must work hard to pass every little test

Of survival, of acceptance, of our education

If you do this, you win entry into that station

You get your plate with a great helping of life

You also get freedom, so much to cut with a knife

You are also guaranteed a nice piece of pure black dirt

But now, you’ll scarf it down like it’s your last dessert

Those on high with the interpreting power

Tell you that your sweet cake will taste sour

Greedy claws take big clumps to make a pile

They’re kings of the hill, down on you they’ll smile

You bitterly seethe and pray you had a fire hose

So you could muddy up the pile and down everyone goes

But they know you’ll never have another chance to win

Be it very small, the takers still believe it a sin

For you to have your meal, everything guaranteed

That’s the right for them; it’s a privilege for you to need

They don’t care if their day will arrive

They know the offenders will always be alive

On the top because of the nature of our kind

That’s the axiom, they way it will be defined

Capitalism may be the most stable economy

But greed and power are carved in the taxonomy

The groundlings are lost in the shuffle of time

And the promise now tastes like a bucket of slime

Prophets with six strings will repeat the story

To them only, this tale is horror movie gory

Maybe this decision made on a split of five-four

Will make the people I love get up and not ignore

The moves that a power-hungry few will make

Because everybody wants a slice of dirt-flavored cake

Reviews

[Matthew Smith]

This is a definition, I know that well enough. Society at worst, society at best.

I'd like a refund, though. I never got any silverware.

[Emily Rae]

I'm really impressed with your ability to construct a substantial political message on the bones of such elegant rhyme. clearly, your analytical--I like that.

[Priscilla Sayers]

What a well written piece with so many different messages. A flow that cpontinues smoothly through each verse another metaphor to savour.
Very good indeed.

[SkinlessFrank]

This is more than good, it is dirty good.

[Hayley]

Successful use of rhyming couplets, it seems effortless to you. I couldn't have said it any better than Muse did... I'd just be repeating her.
My favorite couplet is the last couplet; It says it all, doesn't it?
I love your imagination with the dirt-flavored cake, dirty and pleasant all the same as the world sees it, or you...

[roarke]

the first five couplets are a little abstract, then the piece becomes sharper with each succeeding couplet. I like that transition. You open up the mind, make the reader think and then you lead them to the message. I'd say you are very good at spoon feeding that cake....

[.]

a powerful message..poignantly played out..it's amazing what we will eat just to get ahead..

[Muse]

I see another message here. Perhaps you are jaded by all the lies that have been sugar-coated and shoved down your throat? Ironically, society is so dumbed down and desensitized...they willing eat the dirt with a smile.

[joshua deathdealer]

Mmm yummy. Deliciously I don't give s**t attitude..xx