By, christian schwartz

I’m in the living room watching him play.

My favorite game on my Ps4.

What is he doing in there.

Using my favorite controller .

Laughing with my best friends .

He glances over to make sure i’m watching him .

He wins then laughs right in my face .

“I’m better than you!”

I get on i’m in my happy place.

It’s just me nobody else just me.

It would be hard going back for all of us,

But not as hard as it would be for her.

Every chance they get

They crowd around her

Shoving a mask onto her face,

Trying to convince her she is something she is not.

All of this, 

Just because she is different.

All of this fear,

All of this hatred,

Just because they don’t understand…

Just because she is different.

Here - it’s everything you need

And more. 

Here’s everything everyone covets of you.

Born into poverty:

Everyday is a struggle

Everyday you’re Sisyphus, pushing the stone

The stone of living up an endless hill of life.

The inheritance that pampers the ones lucky enough

Only grows as taxes are collected from those beneath them.

And the meager amount scrapped daily for those beneath

Will only fall as the rapacious patricians satisfy their hunger for gold. 

She was born with everything thrown together in a package for her

Everything, and more.

She can have the extravagant Capitol life 

But she wants more.

Somewhere, outside of her short line of sight,

There is another.

This other that struggles for the day to pass and to make ends meet

And all she can hope for is a life sunnier than the dark clouds of District 12.

Why is it

That those with the givens and granteds of life

Can’t appreciate what they have

When there are so many less fortunate?