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Poetry

What’s going on

by Marge Piercy

(Jun 01, 2025)

Topics: Class Ecology Marxism Movements State Repression Places: Americas United States

Let’s cull the herd, say
the billionaire masters.
Why should we waste
the taxes they pay us

on breathable air. It’s
fine up here. We don’t
drink water we pollute.
A crazed man can crash

the CDC dead, while
we strip their insurance
from millions. Fossil
fuels delight us. We

can always move to
the moon. Let massive
hurricanes, tornadoes,
wildfires clear them out

so we can build mansions,
4-star hotels. We no longer
need the working class.
AI never goes on strike.

Marge Piercy is the author of twenty books of poetry, most recently On the Way Out, Turn Off the Light, plus seventeen novels, a memoir, a short story collection, and five nonfiction books.