Looking Back on Capitalism, in Haiku

By Matt Dineen

In the recent past
before the revolution
everyone worked.

Things were different
work was separate from meaning
work was meaningless.

Back then, some were rich
the rest were poor or in debt
work was survival.

Time was limited
true passions were not valued
they were just hobbies.

Greed and boredom ruled
imaginations suppressed
by clocks and bosses.

One year all that changed
seeds were planted all over
a new world was born.

We refused to work
wild dreams were cultivated
passions were realized.

Money disappeared
and life had meaning again
work was redefined.

We wake up each day
grateful of this great struggle
and what we now have.
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Submitted to a collection, a "large-scale reimagining," proposed by Cleveland-based writer and activist Kate Sopko who writes, "We’re in new times now, and new times call for new myths that answer to the times, making sense of the world as we know it. So, I want to start asking people a question: what could you use a myth to explain for you?" Read more on her blog: Stewards of the Lost Lands.

Contact Matt Dineen at: passionsandsurvival@gmail.com