1.
When you say green university,
is green a euphemism for money?
Is it a metaphor
for the substance
bled
from students
in exchange
for the possibility
of better opportunities
in their future?

I put a quarter
in the ticket dispenser
in the UNBC parking lot
and it reads:
“Fee paid,
pay more,”
as if the machine
speaks
for the whole educational institution.

Our ancestors
lobbied
for free education,
not fee education,
but the system
cannot run as it does
if anyone can become
empowered.

2.
When you say server,
is that a euphemism for serf?
Am I here
to aid the modern CEO vassals
in their quest
to engorge themselves
on oversized portions,
while across the ocean
the peasants
are wasting away,
and I
am struggling to put food
on my own table?

I once asked a ‘gentleman’
if he could please
not
read over my shoulder
while I split up his bill.
He said it was brave
for someone
in my position
to say something like that
to a customer.

Perhaps the reason the USA
is a military nation
is that,
like the Spartans,
the outnumbered CEO’s
fear a slaves revolt.

3.
When you say human,
is that a euphemism for drone?
Do you see cogs and gears
in place of bones and sinew,
reducing the whole to a mere machine
and it’s functions?

I measure my own existence in shifts:
nine-to-five,
five-to-nine,
five-to-five,
nine-to-nine;
the hours don’t matter anymore.
Only the result,
or product, of my labour
is counted.

Maybe someday
Monsanto will create
genetically modified people –
specifically engineered
to clean,
or weld,
or cook –
that expire
if they entertain
a communist or socialist idea.

4.
When you say democracy,
do you mean dictatorship?
Does it matter
which puppet
I choose on election day,
when big business
is pulling all the strings?

I drive past the Wal-Mart in my neighbourhood,
which has become a Wal-Mart Superstore
with giant sliding doors
like a ravenous mouth.
It seems ready now
to devour any
ethical
commercial outlets
that get in the way
of its super expansion.

The lines between government regulation offices
and big business board rooms
blur,
until all the faces
are the same,
so no one can slay
the monster that is Wal-Mart.

5.
When you say capitalism,
is that a euphemism for corruption?
Does ‘free enterprise’
mean you are free
to participate in the enterprise
of concentrating the resources of many
into the hands of a few?

I, too, am sucked,
in spite of myself,
into the conveyer belt world of production and consumption.
To investigate the latest
human rights violation
I, too, google it
on my new IPhone.

CITIBank mortgage lenders
continue to make underhanded foreclosures
that contribute only to their bottom line.
Where will we put our stuff
when they make us all homeless?
Big business
doesn’t care.
It’s about money,
and that is the only bottom line
when you are speaking to a capitalist.