Superfluous People

We are the superfluous people.
We are the unionized workers replaced by robots or slaves,
the secretaries ousted by computers.
We are the people of color, the over-50, the people with disabilities,
the ones who don’t belong on the team.
We are the displaced homemakers,
the parentless children,
the partnerless parents,
the poets without readers,
the teachers without students,
the students who can’t afford college,
the graduates who didn’t get hired,
the scientists without grants,
the executives who got downsized.

Why is this?
Isn’t there enough work to do in the world?
Aren’t there enough stomachs to be filled,
enough limbs to be clothed,
enough babes to be rocked,
enough children and youth to be taught,
enough neighborhoods to be beautified,
enough trees to be planted,
enough fields to be tilled,
enough songs to be sung,
enough stories to be told,
enough riddles to be solved,
enough wounds to be healed,
enough houses and cities to be built right?

But the market does not ask these questions.
The market cannot ask what people need.
It can only ask what those who have the money
want.
Only community can ask
what people need.

And time may be short.
As slave labor replaces free,
as machines replace people,
as large corporations swallow up small ones
and cut their staffs
and buy up the press and the government,
I tell you Spaceship Earth is flying
with a shrinking crew,
a skeleton crew
with skeleton motives,
and the rest of us are not passengers.
We are ballast.
And we feel the moment edging closer
when we could be pushed off.

But let’s keep our heads, my friends.
Let us put them together.
Together let us learn to ask the question
what we, the people, need.

We are the superfluous people.
Nobody needs us
except ourselves.
But if you’ll say you need me
I’ll say I need you.
And we can start.