ALL HANDS ARE NOT EQUAL

Once I was invited to one of those

Parties where whiskey and wine

Flowed like Atlantic and Pacific together.

Champagne bubbled in the cups as

Laughter bubbled in the eyes.

However, there were people with

 Nothing to eat let alone drink

malnutrition was holding hostage

But here

Tables constantly changed

Burdens, and men and women

Painted themselves with

Hard currencies

Manufacturers couldn’t procure

For business transactions.

A stranger I was

In this uninviting world of

The excessively rich

Where gold reigns supreme

With no thought for the have-nots

But here I was

Making guarded conservation

With people I didn’t like

In a place I didn’t belong.

Conservation with people

Who were on their way up

Or already there

Not by creativity

But by being smart

With their fingers helping themselves

With money meant for all or knew

Somebody important or knew somebody who knew 

Somebody important

So disgusted was I that

Many didn’t quite know

What to make of me and

Who could blame them

I didn’t pass the dress code

And most times I didn’t even know

What to make of myself.

I did however, know what to

Make of most of them;

There were men and women

Who extinguished

The light of hope

Of my people and when asked

Explained that all hands were never equal

.