The Murders

I. In the Beginning

Desolation Row. December 4. Manhattan.
A shot rings out in the morning
Bullet to back. Dead. Will insurance
cover the autopsy?

Fault line in America shakes
gray granite twists and zigzags
like Black Neely before Daniel Penny kneels.

X was silenced for saying
“The chickens have come home to roost.”
But today the chickens cluck & crow
Roosting on United’s sin sick Health (sic).

We the people are angry
Fed up with food that does not satisfy.
A change gonna come
gonna come
gonna come
It won’t be long now!

II. Commentary from the Trees

The Murders

A murder of crows
Ferocious caws and cackle, at times
A Shriek. A scream.
Stopping my rollator
Sitting on my seat
Watching the barren brown-barked
Oak fill to the brim
Fierce with anger.

I listened long.
More soon joined the murder
Winter limbs sagging from bird-weight.

Then I heard, for a brother am I
To the black fowl:
“Brian Thompson!
Brian Thompson!
How many died?
Like children burned, blown to bits by
American Israeli bombs?
As you stockholders grew
Fat and worshiped the golden altar
The Gospel of Mammon.”

                   Then

Uproarious cackle and caw
Crow-laughter spilling through
Sharp black beaks:

“You stupid human beings
With your pro-profit capitalism
Medical uncare.
We caw, keen, and bellow
At your murders for greed.”

Death in dark corners now
Waiting in broad daylight.

Ed Loring
December 16, 2024

Since departing Bamberg, SC Black Crows have been my spiritual bird.

A compliment to this poem, and I recommend the reader listen to:
Sweet Honey in the Rock “Greed.” But right now please go to YouTube and listen to the lyrics of Jesse Welles “United Health”

[Verse 1]
There’s an
Office in a building and a person in a chair
And you paid for it all, though you may be unaware
You payed for the paper, you payed for the phone
You paid for everything they need to  deny you what you’re owed.

[Chorus]

There ain’t no “You” in UnitedHealth
There ain’t no “Me” in the company
There ain’t no “Us” in the private trust
There’s hardly humans in humanity.

[Verse 2]
Now the procedure that you’re needing ain’t the cost effective route
And only two-percent of pеople end up winning a dispute
So, if you gеt sick, pray to God for help
‘Cause your doctor’s gotta pray through UnitedHealth.

[Verse 3]
Way back in
Seventy-and-seven, Mister Richard T. Burke
Started buying HMO’s and putting federal grants to work
Made 50 billion buckaroos last year
The Warren Buffet of Health, the Jeff Bezos of fear.

[Verse 4]
Now CEO’s come and go, and one just went
The ingredients you got bake the cake you get
But if you get sick, cross your fingers for luck
‘Cause old Richard T. Burke ain’t giving a fuck.

[Verse 5]
Commoditized health, monopolized fraud
“Is the doctors we own and research that we bought them”
They own the pharmacies and a lot of the meds
They should start buying graves to sell us when we’re all dead.

[Chorus]
There ain’t no “You”, in UnitedHealth
There ain’t no “Me”, in the company
There ain’t no “Us” in the private trust
There’s hardly humans in humanity.

There’s hardly humans in humanity.