Poetic Politics of Profit

What poet can be “politically correct”
Without speaking out
Against tyranny, hypocrisy
Or even the failures of democracy?
It would seem criminal to not share a common voice
With the countless whose urban plight
It seems to have sparked suburban flight,
Flight from ghetto sanctuaries to metro mini malls.
What sort of poet pens poetic verse
That does not curse and condemn
The very system that presses down
On many with no relief
And offers little or no hope?
I would say such a poet
Would be a bond-servant of the tyrants
And tycoons who make
Their greenbacks
From those they call wetbacks
And so-called Blacks
Seeking every break from every tax.

-Bruce Jackson (2009)