He’d Get Even!

 

A child was born, dark as night,
and sent out into the world.
Everywhere he turned,
such insults, people hurled.

He took this all in stride,
grew up and became a man.
Took one look at his skin,
it was darker than a tan.

On a mountaintop, he stood,
looking out on a sea of hate.
He decided that once and for all,
he’d be the master of his own fate.

He had been followed for many a day,
even when he’d stopped to rest.
He thought he’d never feel secure,
knew that to him, this was a test.

God, they said, loved him
and he believed it for awhile.
but he carried with him, a match.
It’ll be evidence at his trial.

You see, this man, he may have snapped
on a hot day in July.
They say he lit a match or two,
but that could be a lie.

They say he took a match in hand
and lit it with intent
to burn and scorch some wood
and express his discontent.

Or maybe he got tired
of America and her shit!
And decided he’d get even
with a match that he’d just lit!

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2018 Shelby I. Courtland

I wrote a poem similar to this one last year and only tweaked it a bit. But you can read the other one here!

This poem was written because a Black man has been arrested for starting the California wildfires that have consumed so many acres and burned so many structures and the fires are still raging even though there are also stories bandied about that fires were started by a vehicle burning up and the wind carried the flames. Nevertheless, this Black man is being charged and held in lieu of $1 million bail in connection with the wildfires. If he did start some of those fires, I for one, don’t blame him. Maybe he did snap. Maybe, he got fed up and that was the only way he knew to fight back. Do I fault him for that if this is indeed, the case? Absolutely not! And from the looks of the structures that have burned, it looks to me like no Black person lost their home or livelihood especially seeing as how the only ‘people’ who have been interviewed are ‘white’. Go figure! It would seem that ‘white’ folks want a race war and since that is the case, you may just get what you’ve been spoiling for. But remember, there is more than one way to skin a cat!

TEMECULA, CA — A Temecula man has been arrested on suspicion of starting the out-of-control Cranston Fire burning near Idyllwild, fire officials announced Wednesday night. And not only is the 32-year-old accused of starting the 4,700-acre fire Wednesday — but he’s also accused of starting four other fires in Southwest Riverside County.

Brandon N. Mc Glover was arrested Wednesday. Riverside County Sheriff’s Department records show he was booked on suspicion of five counts of arson on a structure, five counts of arson on land and three counts of maliciously setting a fire. His bail was set at $1 million.

I must say, Brandon N. Mc Glover knows how to stick it to the ‘white’ man. Burn his shit down and you’ve fucked up his day! Discommode some ‘white’ folks by rendering them homeless like the Black people who have been displaced by gentrification and you fuck up the ‘white’ man’s day. My day ain’t fucked up behind this and that is for damn sure! You see, camping is fine for ‘white’ folks when it is something they WANT to do, but when it is something they have to do…well now, that’s a different story. Ask the ‘whites’ who are still camping out in Hawaii if they still like camping out thanks to the Kilauea volcano erupting and  burying their homes in lava. Karma is a bitch, ain’t it ‘white’ folks??!! And you ain’t done receiving yours yet, so don’t even think it!

Southern Border Family Separations, What About Slave Family Separations And Families Separated By Incarceration?

 

I have never heard so much whooping and hollering coming from ‘whites’ over migrant children being separated from their parents by ‘white’ U.S. border agents and yet, many descendants of slaves have probably married close relatives all because our slave ancestors were separated upon their arrival on these shores after having been dragged from their native land to be used as free labor. Slaves were stripped, chained and sold at auction as children were ripped and torn from their mother’s arms and yet we are to believe that ‘whites’ suddenly give a damn about family separations? For real? You nasty ‘white’ shits haven’t changed. You are still just as disgusting, vile and reprehensible as what spawned your evil ass!

I do realize that it has been stated that many of those who make the trek to America from south of the border are here because America has made it extremely difficult for them to live in their countries and because of drug turf wars. But be that as it may, ‘whites’ are responsible for this mess just as they are responsible for the fact of African children being separated from their parents. The ‘whites’ didn’t give a shit about family separation then, but now there has been an epiphany among the lot of them that is causing them to condemn the Trump administration’s attempts to separate children from their parents with ICE officials sending the parents back across the border without their children? Right! I’m buying that bullshit!

Oh the horrifying pictures of crying, screaming children is just heart wrenching to those who have no heart. ‘Whites’ have long looked on descendants of slaves being separated from their families with depraved indifference even up to present day because why else are there millions of Black mothers and fathers wasting away in ‘For Profit Prisons’ on bullshit drug charges if ‘whites’ are so concerned about family separations? You selective outraged shits are the very definition of hypocrisy from one end of this doomed shithole to the other. Why those people would want to come to this collapsing heap of putrid filth is a complete and utter mystery to me. For what they will find here is no ‘land of milk and honey’, but they will instead find ignorance, hatred, greed, selfishness, inhumanity, poverty, homelessness, starvation and hookworm.

Safety nets are being gutted even as I type this and so why those people are not encouraged to return from whence they came, I don’t know because there is nothing for them here. Ask the millions who are homeless. Ask the millions who are already here living in deep, unrelenting poverty. Ask the millions who go to bed hungry at night. Ask the millions of children who are living in poverty and whose only decent meal is the one they get at school. Ask the children who are in foster care and who are put out on the streets at age 18 to fend for themselves or starve, become homeless and die.

But ‘whites’ are pretending to give a shit about some migrant children who are tearful at being separated from their mothers and fathers when they don’t give a shit for those who are legally in the United States and who are just as tearful and in need of  pity, help and some more shit! You skank ass filth is absolutely beyond the end of enough with your fake ass displays of outrage over what you set in motion. Those people are attempting to escape the traps you set for them, just as you’ve done to every other group who is not lacking melanin. You trap, enslave and destroy. That is the playbook you’ve always used and you’re still at it. You’ve not changed in all these hundreds of years. Why should you? If it works for you, what need have you to change a goddamn thing?

While those south of the border are coming here, you’re busy buying up the real estate where they came from and building gated communities, golf courses, tennis courts, spas and every damn thing else you need in order to lie around and live the ‘good life’ of relaxing at the beach, sipping an alcoholic beverage while your native maid cleans the condo and the native gardener is pruning the hedges for mere pesos, of course.

Oh how sad it all is that those poor little children are motherless and fatherless and wailing to the high heavens because they are so alone. But you’ve got plans for them. Of that, I am quite sure. How many of them have gone missing thus far? From what I hear, they’ve lost count because they are useful to you in some way just as the slaves were, just as Black prisoners are. But you’ve never shed one tear of outrage over the plight of the separated slave families nor have you shed one tear over the separation of families thanks to your ‘For Profit Prison Industrial Complex’ and you won’t because down to your very core, you are the most heartless, cold, callous, twisted, depraved deviants to ever slither and crawl across this godforsaken planet that you’ve made so thanks to the evil that is you!

What this world could have been like if ‘whites’ were not allowed!

The white savages killed off so many Indian tribes.

They stole their land with firewater and worthless beads as bribes.

The Indians never stood a chance against savages with a gun.

A bullet will always out pace a horse, even at a run.

An entire continent could not escape the thieving ways of man.

They plundered Africa’s wealth and stole its people for their plan.

With blood dripping everywhere, the savage whipped the broken slave.

We know who fucked the world up and who no good could ever save.

White savages will forever enslave all Black and Brown folk,

and if they rise to try to fight, they’re hindered by their yoke.

No good did ever come from the white savages rule on earth,

as they seek, destroy and kill amidst such peals of mirth.

Is it funny to this day, what those savages have wrought?

Do you find the time to laugh since in slavery, you’ve been caught?

When they finally destroy this world with their nukes and fracking sites,

and since the people have been cowed and deprived of all their rights

will the last to close their eyes see beyond the mushroom cloud,

to what this world could have been like if ‘whites’ were not allowed?

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2014 Shelby I. Courtland

Oh, I’m crying, alright! I’m shedding tears because dead ‘white’ filth was allowed on this planet in the first damn place! Yeah! That’s why I’m crying! Because if not for you, there would have been no descendants of slaves in this stolen land and there would be no migrant children wailing for their parents and there would not be millions of descendants of slaves behind bars kept away from their children thanks to yet another version of slavery and there would be millions of Indians still living as one on this land. But you worthless ‘white’ shits are in an uproar over what YOU set in motion? Get the fuck outta here with your fake ass displays of outrage, you hypocritical pieces of dead filth!

Walt Disney Told Our Story!

 

 

Black History Month is at an end
and Walt Disney told our story.
We learned about Wakanda
and Black Panther got the glory.

Wearing dashikis and head wraps,
we clapped and cheered for Wakanda;
that magical of all kingdoms,
it looks just like Uganda!

Now, Uganda is over in Africa,
and the poverty rate is high.
Healthcare is abysmal
and people with cholera, they still die.

The folks over in Somalia?
They ain’t looking so good.
Trump just bombed them again,
just like I knew he would.

But over by way of Ethiopia,
the folks there got a plight.
They ain’t eating at all.
And it ain’t about a hunger strike.

The African women of Liberia
have long been seen as slaves;
sex slaves to be exact
and that don’t get no praise.

What about over in Kenya?
They got educated folks
and still, some end up homeless
Look it up, this ain’t no hoax.

Now we come to Ghana,
is this a kingdom too?
It was once ruled by the British.
Does that give you a clue?

Libya is off the chain
and slavery is everywhere.
America and NATO
filled Libyans with despair.

But we celebrate Black History Month
with Black Panther to the rescue.
There’s a kingdom over in Africa,
where lives the privileged few.

Wakanda, is its name.
Its Black Panther leads the charge
against usurpers to the throne
within the kingdom or at large.

Vibranium is its weapon,
against enemies far and wide.
I bet real African nations
wish this kingdom was by their side.

Between fantasy and reality,
we choose fantasy every time.
and we’d rather pay Walt Disney
 our last hard-earned dime.

We don’t care about Liberia,
because that is just too real.
And we don’t live in Uganda
where cholera is a big deal.

We want to live in Wakanda,
fake as it can be.
But that is what we are,
fake people with a fake history.

This here ends Black History,
with many thanks to Walt Disney
who sat us down in Wakanda;
a kingdom; a magical fantasy.

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2018 Shelby I. Courtland

In my opinion, it is a shame that throughout this entire short month that has been set aside to showcase Black History, Walt Disney and Marvel COMICS took over the focus that should have been on REAL Black heroes and heroines who were on the front lines, battling  slavery, oppression, Jim Crow, segregation, voting rights, gentrification, mass unemployment, mass homelessness, a school-to-prison pipeline, mass incarceration, income inequality, substandard health care, cuts to education, inadequate housing, economic inequality, food insecurity, crime, violence, drugs, gangs, teen pregnancies and high homicide rates of Black youth in inner cities and the list is endless.

There was no focus on the above because Black people were so easily distracted into wearing African head wraps and dashikis because a movie was hyped about a fictional kingdom in Africa where there was untold wealth and a superhero to the rescue to protect his rich kingdom.

We would rather remain blind to the facts and to reality. We want, for two hours, to forget the realities we face because we need to be made to ‘feel good’ about belonging to some kingdom in Africa that isn’t even real. How pathetic is that? We want Walt Disney to hurry up and give us Part II of “Wakanda Forever” just in time for next Black History Month so that we can, again, focus on fantasy and not on our reality. How sad is that?

When have we ever lived a “Wakanda Forever” life here in AmeriKKKa? Do you seriously think that even with the links that I have provided in my poem, that the REAL Africa is anything at all like what Walt Disney would have you believe?

When you left the theater, did you see “Wakanda” when you stepped outside? Did you see “Wakanda” when you returned home? Did you see “Wakanda” when you checked out the local news where you live? Did you see “Black Panther” save any Black man, woman or child from being arrested or shot and killed by cops for playing in a park with a toy gun or for failing to use the proper turn signal or for selling loose, un-taxed cigarettes or for simply sleeping in their bed?

How did paying Walt Disney and Marvel Comics for the ‘pleasure’ of watching their distraction help you in any way? Did wearing your dashiki and African head wrap stop the police from pulling you over? Did wearing your dashiki and African head wrap stop your landlord from handing you an eviction notice because your neighborhood is about to be gentrified? Did the “Black Panther” swoop down and take you to “Wakanda Forever?” If you are reading this, Black man, woman, teenager(the few who can read), then the answer is “NO!”

Black History Month? Who needs it when we’ve got “Wakanda Forever!”

“Wakanda?” Forever!

“Thank you Walt Disney for supplying us with our REAL and TRUE History, THIS Black History Month! All hail Walt Disney!”

“WHY?”

I am like a star that refuses to shine,
or you could liken me to a plant
that just won’t grow,
worn out from endless battles
fought over my skin.
  Is there no final curtain call
on a show that will never end?
These are my burdens of despair,
drooping my shoulders
and graying my hair.
Cops still shooting us down,
drugs plaguing what’s left
of hoods yet to be gentrified.
Siren-filled nights,
as gunfire brings home,
a message of cruelty,
inhumanity and torn apart lives.
I look for answers,
but all I have is one question,
“WHY?”

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2018 Shelby I. Courtland

Sometimes, I am so filled with despair over the suffering that is relentless, that it suffocates me. To have a heart that hurts so much to the point that it makes me want to just scream. Why are we devolving into debased creatures who can kill each other without even blinking? And it begs the question for those who believe in evolution, “Did we ever really ‘evolve’?” When I look around, I can honestly say, “No, we did not!” For surely, what we see is irrefutable proof that we certainly did not! And if anyone should be so disturbed as to believe that these were ‘mercy killings’…..just don’t even go there.

The blog that preceded this one is partly responsible for this post and then, add this into the equation and my heart is heavy with despair!

Homeless men are being gunned down on the street in Las Vegas

The video is chilling. James Edgar Lewis is sleeping under a Las Vegas freeway when a dark-colored SUV passes by. Seconds later, a man wearing a dark top emerges from the vehicle and shoots Lewis twice in the head before fleeing.

There is no struggle, no fight. Lewis never even appears to wake up.

“It’s basically an execution,” said Lt. Dan McGrath of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.

This is the second such killing in the Las Vegas area.

On January 29, Brian Clegg was shot and killed, also while sleeping, in front of a business on a busy street.

Two lost souls sleeping on the streets, with as many horrors and problems that entails and then,  finally, from sheer exhaustion, more than likely, finding some relief in sleep, only to be shot dead.

I look for answers,
but all I have is one question,
“WHY?”

Black Supremacy!

 

Black Supremacy, it is not just a state of mind,
it is the melanin in my skin and those of my kind.
Black Supremacy, we were told, really did not exist.
And yet, it is to be found in every raised Black fist.

Black Supremacy, the whites consider it a threat,
as they seek our demise, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Black Supremacy is in my style that is copied every day,
in my dreadlocks and my braids and in my hips, that I sway.

Black Supremacy is the slave who would not bend or break,
she is why I’m here and why my slave name, I won’t take.
Black Supremacy is my mom who taught me how to read
and that to get an education is how I would succeed.

Black Supremacy is my dad who works to keep me fed,
and who comes home at night and tucks me in my bed.
Black Supremacy marched through streets
against those who wore white sheets.

Black Supremacy, they tried to lynch
with hatred’s putrid stench.
Black Supremacy reigns supreme
and is every white man’s dream.

Black Supremacy just won’t die
though to the white man, that’s a lie.
Black Supremacy, is here to stay.
So get your white ass out my way!
Black Supremacy, though much maligned
is humanity, redefined.

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2018 Shelby I. Courtland

As someone wrote on another blog post of mine, ‘white supremacy’ is a misnomer for how can it be otherwise? Who in the world other than depraved lunatics, could invade sovereign nations, kill indigenous populations, enslave people for profit, drop atomic bombs on innocent people, start wars over lies, initiate coups against minor Latin countries and establish American puppets there, use white phosphorous on the innocent people of Iraq, torture people in their land after having invaded it over a lie, experimented on people of color as in The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, The Guatemalan STD Study, inflict horrors on the people of Puerto Rico and islanders all across this planet, render millions homeless, infest communities of color with addictive drugs and then incarcerate the addicts, jail people of color in numbers disproportionate to their population count, deliberately allow children of color to eat lead paint which leads to brain developmental growth problems and learning disabilities, throw sick people of color out of hospitals and watch them die because of it, lynch people because of the color of their skin, promote separate entrances for people based on the color of their skin, promote gentrification, put into play, a school-to-prison pipeline for children of color, poison the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink and still consider themselves to be ‘white supremacists? Who? We ALL know! So best believe, there is not a thing ‘supremacy’ like about you. The people who are overwhelmingly filled with supremacy are Black people because we have managed not to murder you depraved lunatics in record numbers despite all that you have done to us simply because your depraved ancestors dragged ours over here and you are no different from them; that’s one reason we are filled with supremacy because we are ‘humanity, redefined’. We are not ‘humanity’ as you ‘whites’ would define it because you would place yourselves under the definition of ‘humanity’ when nothing could be further from the truth. You, of ‘humanity’? HA! That’ll be the day! Black people have tolerated your racist shit for hundreds of years and still you try and paint yourselves as saviors instead of what you really are; piles of filth beneath shit and flies! As vile as you are, how the word ‘supremacy’ can even escape from between your lips is a complete and utter mystery to me! That just shows how arrogant and conceited you are, but a ‘supremacist’? Not a goddamn chance in hell!

That stupid ‘white supremacy’ shit ends right now and as we head into ‘Black History Month’, I am declaring February to be “Black Supremacy Month!”

To ALL my Black brothers and sisters, this one is for YOU!

I Had A Dream…..!

 

I had a dream the other night and in it was Dr. King.
I stared in awestruck wonder as my eyes began to sting.
The expression on his face was so solemn and yet so kind,
I wondered if he knew about the turmoil in my mind.
What could I say to him about the troubles we still know?
And I wondered if he knew about the debt that whites still owe?
I implored him with my mind to see history through my eyes
and this distorted world of whites who still hail him with their lies.
I wanted him to see the view from where we stand
beneath a concrete bridge and homeless in this land,
where Jim Crow still exists from when hatred was unleashed
and though he too was jailed, millions weren’t released.

Today, they’ll praise his name and say that things have changed
that they no longer burn a cross or watch a Black man hanged.
But we all know the truth in that lynching still exists
and I see the whip slice forward, there’s the echo of its hiss.
The view from where I stand is not from on a mountain top
as I look upon my brother, killed by a racist cop.
His blood still stains the ground and as I turn to Dr. King,
I extend my hands towards him for to him, I want to cling,
to beg him to come back to us, but he only shakes his head.
I then realize tis a dream and that Dr. King is dead!

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2018 Shelby I. Courtland

As we, again, celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day which this year happens to fall on his birthday, we will hear from people who would assassinate Dr. King a million times over if they could. We will hear from the hypocrites who pretend to pay homage to a man who was not for corporations and who was against the mis-treatment of the poor and yet,  on the front page of every newspaper, magazine, television screen and any other type of news media, we will be bombarded with images of Dr. King and we shall hear his “I Have A Dream!” speech another trillion times and then, that’s it folks!

Not a thing has changed since Dr. King’s speeches, marches, protests and nothing will because simply posting a picture of him and recalling his words does nothing. If anything, things have gotten much worse.

For instance:

The University of Maryland Medical Center’s top executive apologized to a patient who was discharged and found on the street wearing only a thin hospital gown and socks outside its midtown facility, calling it an isolated incident.

“We take full responsibility for this failure,” Dr. Mohan Suntha said during a Thursday afternoon news conference. The hospital did not provide “basic humanity and compassion,” he added.

Hospital officials have not said what the woman was treated for in the emergency room or why she was left out in the cold near a public transit bus stop. Mohan said she received proper care while in the hospital and that the incident happened after discharge.

Translation!

As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Day as well as his birthday, just a few days ago, another Black woman was thrown out of a hospital by security, clad only in a hospital gown and socks. While she was wandering aimlessly around, with no obvious idea of what to do, another Black man decided to tape the incident because he was absolutely beyond horrified over witnessing this shocking event.

Because the event was taped and posted on Youtube, now there is an uproar about ‘patient dumping’ that seems to happen to mostly Black patients and the hospital’s top executive stated that this patient “received proper care while in the hospital and that the incident happened after discharge.”

Excuse me! But when did it become the norm to discharge patients in a hospital gown and socks in the middle of a frigid winter’s night? I can tell you that of the times that I have been discharged from a hospital, you had damn well better believe that I was not discharged in a hospital gown and hospital socks and told to “Suck it!” as this woman was apparently told to do! How many times have you seen a patient sitting in a chair being wheeled out of a hospital and to a bus stop by security while still wearing a hospital gown(open in the back) and socks? And if you read the article, it mentions that this happens more times than we know and especially to the homeless. Go figure!

And yet, we are really going to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy? Is this his legacy? Seriously??!! We really want to go there??!!! When Dr. King, along with his civil rights organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, decided to launch a campaign to highlight the many problems facing the poor, the result of that today is to put poor patients out on the street in the middle of a frigid winter’s night in nothing but a thin hospital gown that doesn’t even close in the back and a pair of hospital socks? But that is an acceptable discharge according to the hospital’s executive director? Because the hospital is responsible for you from the time you are admitted until the time you are SAFELY discharged. And being sent out in that condition, especially in a city like Baltimore, is anything but SAFELY discharged.

How is this even happening? It is happening because poor people are not even thought of as human even in a hospital. Read about Anna Brown and Barbara Dawson and then come talk to me about how Dr. King’s legacy is alive and well because these two women are dead since they were treated just as this woman in Baltimore was treated.

So, go ahead, post your blogs commemorating Dr. King and espouse upon his legacy as though that has any meaning whatsoever because quite obviously, none of us know a damn thing about how we are supposed to be treating each other and we don’t want to know. Can you imagine Dr. King, with a smartphone in his hand, more worried about getting the latest model over helping some poor, homeless and sick woman find her way? Do you think that Dr. King would give a damn about a Wi-Fi connection? How does that help feed the hungry? How does that clothe the naked, like this woman who was dumped out of a hospital in the cold? How does that help a single mom who is about to become homeless with her kids? A mom who just recently worked for one of the Sam’s Clubs that Wal-Mart just shut down without any warning whatsoever which means for those of you who want to blame the victim for their troubles, who is to blame when the company you work for closes its doors and you only find out that you don’t have a job when you report to work?

Yes indeed, let us cease and desist with all social programs because the poor should just die already as this is why we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Day! Let the hypocrisy begin!

 

A Christmas Without Gifts?

 

 

 

A Christmas without gifts?
Would it really be so bad?
Has anyone ever died
because they missed a TV ad?

Every goddamn year,
people fight over ‘smart TVs’
and camp out at a store
like trained chimpanzees.

Into the store you go.
You do exactly as you’re told.
On Monday, hit the keyboard,
and yet, another diamond sold.

What holiday is this?
Did you miss the memo too?
What happened to peace and love?
You’ve turned this earth into a zoo!

Fights broke out here!
There’s shooting over there!
You stomp each other every year
trying to buy some Tupperware!

So, you’ve got your shopping done.
For those gifts, yes you did brawl.
You found everything you need,
but was Jesus at the mall?

Now, sing your songs about his birth.
Oh, what joy it brings!
You hocked your ass to death
for all those stupid things!

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2017 Shelby I. Courtland

Today, I was asked if I had my Christmas shopping done. The question was posed by a stranger, someone who obviously did not know me. And I answered, “No one is getting a damn thing from me! They never do!” And I was quite surprised when the lady stated that she was of the same mindset and that she had ditched that shopping madness shit years ago. I told her, “Good for her!” There were others around and we had a lively conversation about this. Here in my neck of the woods, there weren’t many long lines snaking around stores waiting for them to open. Many people are as fed up with this spoon fed shop ’til you drop shit as I am and here I thought I was out in left field all by my lonesome in my views of what the ‘celebration’ is supposed to be about.

Long before Christmas even rolls around, even before Thanksgiving, we are bombarded with advertisements to spend, spend, spend money that we don’t even have but because deep discounts are touted, we are made to feel that if we don’t hock something at least, to buy that too good to miss TV deal that we are just slackers. There is never even time to sit down at a table to try and be thankful that we are alive on Thanksgiving Day because before that day and even during that day, we are told to go out and shop. We are told to buy a turkey with all the trimmings and then get right up, head out the door and make sure that we keep shareholders of corporations in the black while our financial situation is in the red.

There are many people who are living paycheck to paycheck and who can barely keep a roof over their head and with their paychecks not keeping up with inflation; the high cost of living, they are still expected to pull money out of their ass to buy gifts. What in the world could you possibly need since you go through this mess every single year? How many TVs and Keurig coffee makers, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners, SUVs and the list is endless do you really need?

The next time you are out driving around, visit a landfill just to get some idea of what we use and then throw away. What will it take to get you to realize that those boxes, Styrofoam, plastic and associated items to keep that coffee maker secure inside that box are filling up landfills everywhere, not to mention, the toxins that come from those products are seeping into our groundwater and we are drinking them every single day. You don’t ever wonder at the price we pay for our headlong rush to get some great deals, but it will all soon come back to bite us on the ass. If you really cared for your children and your grandchildren, you would sit them down and explain to them why you are not getting them something that they’ll play with for a few minutes and then toss to the side. You would explain to them that their very lives depend on you not shopping for yet another doll, another video game, another toy and another and another.

At least I can be thankful that some people are finally waking up and realizing that they have been nothing more than mindless shopping drones who have been programmed to spend too much money to enable shareholders to happily deposit their dividend checks and to enable CEOs of corporations to buy yet another island paradise with that bonus check thanks to overzealous shopping habits because of commercials insisting that you spend yourself to death.

A Christmas without gifts? Would it really be so bad?

‘Trophy Wife’

 

How long will my looks hold up?
And when will he stop considering me, his ‘Trophy Wife’?
Today, I was told that I didn’t look a day over 35.
Tomorrow, I’m making an appointment to go back under the knife.

My personal trainer helps me keep fit.
I nibble on a piece of lettuce at every meal.
What I wouldn’t give to eat a bowl of ice cream,
and for just a slice of chocolate cake, I’d kill.

If only he would stop eyeing those younger girls,
and love me for all that I’ve given to him;
two sons and a daughter and my devotion,
but those younger girls, what I wouldn’t give to be them.

Tonight, I must make another great impression.
His boss is coming over to seal a deal
and he has laid out for me to wear,
a little black dress and shoes with a stiletto heel.

Sometimes, I think he’d prefer it if I broke my neck,
as I teeter across the carpet serving up hors d’oeuvres.
I bet his secretary is all set to take my place
if my boyish figure begins to form curves.

I wonder if the other ‘Trophy Wives’ are like me,
always doubting their ability to hold on to their man
and if they too, long for the forbidden slice of chocolate cake,
or have they no problem keeping up this pretense of love as long as they can?

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2017 Shelby I. Courtland

Hollywood Sexual Assault Hotline: Call 1-800-Law-Yers!

 

 

We here at the Hollywood Sexual Assault Hotline feel your pain
and even though, we stand to gain
know that we will do all we can
for a Hollywood sexual assault ban.
So, please call us if you’ve been groped
and if you had sex when you were doped.
Don’t let the bastards get away with this.
He had no right to steal that kiss
or masturbate right in front of you
as if that was your casting cue.
Just because you played the slut
in a movie that the director cut
is not a reason to misconstrue
your morals, your principles and what you value.
Call our hotline and you will see
that we got your back, but for a fee.
But if you wait to file your claim,
he could say, “You were to blame!”
Men like that get down and dirty.
They’ll say that you were just too flirty.
And that if Donald Trump can ‘grab you by the pussy’,
then you’re just another brazen hussy!

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2017 Shelby I. Courtland

Now, it may seem as though I am making fun of these recent allegations of misconduct of a sexual nature by many big name men in the world of feature films and even in the political field, but I am not. It is just that I am not surprised in the least. Men in powerful positions are going to abuse that power; that is a given and it should be a well known fact. And if people have not reported this because they felt as though they would not be believed, why did they not record these incidences because from what I have read, they occurred multiple times and recording devices have been around for hundreds of years and are small enough to not even be detected and this I know because I have been using recording devices for years too numerous to count. The things that I have recorded would curl your toes. So, I don’t want to hear that you would not have been believed. If you use a little common sense, some things can be caught so that others don’t have to endure what you endured. Am I beating up on the victims? Not really, but at the same time, there are steps that they could have taken to not let things go this far. Why would I enter a hotel room with a man who has been ‘coming on’ to me or saying inappropriate things to me? I wouldn’t. But some of these women who are now accusing men of sexual misconduct did just that. Of course, many have stated that they were young. Ok. If you were that young, then where were your parents? It’s like saying, “It’s not my fault that I was groped while wearing a skimpy bikini in a Miss America contest.” When you put yourself out there, wearing next to nothing, throwing yourself at a man to get a part in a movie, he is going to take advantage of that fact. You mean, you didn’t know this? Of course you did. Now, accept some of the responsibility for this happening to you. It has been stated that these women knew of other women who had experienced the same thing they had experienced since lists were compiled of other women who had gone through a sexual assault of some kind and yet, you all just kept silent until now. What was it that prompted these accusations now? Why is everyone coming forward now? What is behind it?

I am not suggesting that these women ‘asked for it’, I am, however, suggesting that this could have been nipped in the bud sooner if proactive steps had been taken. Women are not stupid. We know what men want and yet we still take our clothes off in front of them on sets of movies and beauty pageants and expect them to remain aloof. We expect them to behave themselves when we know they won’t. I’ve never met a man yet that held back on letting me know where we stood and neither have you. Don’t act surprised when men do just what they’ve been doing since the first man and woman walked this earth. Now, call your lawyer!

Fear Is Not A Halloween Mask!

 

Fear is not a Halloween mask,
 nor is it a walk through a graveyard.
Fear is waking up behind a dumpster
knowing that you can never let down your guard.

Fear is not ghosts and ghouls in fiction books,
nor is it a jack-o’-lantern’s evil grin.
Fear is having a pain in your side
and a nasty rash on your skin.

Fear is not a witch riding on a broom,
nor is it a cauldron boiling hot.
Fear is looking into an empty cupboard
and thinking of all things you haven’t got.

Fear is not a vampire biting on a neck,
nor is it a movie about a Nightmare On Elm Street.
Fear is the life you live of desperation,
hopelessness, misery and defeat.

No, we don’t need Halloween
to bring out the fear in our lives.
All we need do is live another day
to know real fear and why it thrives.

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2017 Shelby I. Courtland

As this is Halloween, we tend to think of the usual things that are supposed to instill fear in us; from evil masks to scary, haunted houses while people are dealing with real fears; fears for their children’s health and wellbeing, the fear of wondering if they will have their retail job after the coming holidays are over, fear that there will not be enough food for their families and fear that they will not be able to keep a roof over their head. There is so much to fear even as we are bombarded with advertisements on the whores of Hollywood and what unique costume they will be sporting and how they will celebrate lavishly at some party somewhere while millions of people are damn near destitute, hopeless and wondering where their next meal will come from.

We have all contributed to what we see today. We have stood silently by and watched this all unfold, but since we still have Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and whatnot, we don’t really have to look up from our iPhones and take a good look around at what is going on. It is a sad shame that we call ourselves social creatures just because we peruse ‘social media’ every single day as we become more and more removed from each other than ever before. So, don your costumes, go to your Halloween parties and post the pics on Facebook. Tweet along with our stupid and ignorant president about what a great time you had and tomorrow when the costume is lying on the floor, when you’ve received 200 ‘likes’ on your costume via Facebook, please tell us how much better off your circumstances are and that of your neighbor.