greed shouldn't drive us

most people have days off,
but i am one of the ones that does not;
my job is considered essential
and corporate is too greedy
to shut down the store and leave the
pumps up for anyone who
may need gas—
they told us we could take two weeks
off if we were scared,
and they would take it out of our vacation;
instead of doing the right thing and closing
down the store and paying us for
two weeks—
i will forever remember their greed,
and how they chose to profit off a pandemic;
how they used me as a sacrificial lamb
so they could fleece more money out of the pockets
of those that don't know well enough to take care of
themselves—
profits before people
that's their credo,
and should i be harmed by this virus or anyone i love
let their blood be the damned spot on their hands they cannot
wash out;
because greed shouldn't be the driving force of america.

Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. Her poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has five published chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press - June 2013), Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon - January 2014), If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016), My Wings Were Made to Fly (Flutter Press, September 2017), and splintered with terror (Scars Publications, January 2018), and one micro-chapbook Heaven Instead (Origami Poems Project, May 2018).