Crowned Parasites

When hardship strikes and economies fall,

I watch greedy vultures feast on it all.

When I cry out for shelter and bread,

Someone calculates their profits instead.

***

In offices, my files creep as snails,

Lost in paperwork and endless trails.

My signature waits, my service delayed;

Without a little fuel, no progress is made!

***

Service desks wear smiles sweet as glaze,

While I drown inside a bureaucratic maze.

“Your complaint is noted, please wait a day”-

Six months later, the answer fades away!

***

I watch traders smile as crises unfold;

Scarcity rises, and prices turn to gold.

I ask why the market has climbed so high:

“Supply and demand!” comes the ready reply.

***

Across this world, I see the same old game,

Different borders, yet greed stays the same.

Wars enrich dealers in weapons and steel,

While I and my neighbors struggle to heal.

***

The rich find shelter, I am left the rain;

Someone always profits from my human pain.

When sickness strikes me, the heavy bills arrive;

Hospitals, chemists, and insurers thrive.

***

My suffering becomes their harvest feast,

While compassion vanishes from the beast.

Even knowledge and trust carry a price,

And promises come wrapped in sugar and spice.

***

Every crisis I face becomes someone’s gain;

Every helpless soul feeds another's chain.

Yet I blame not the dogs or the shaman alone;

The roots of this sickness are deeply grown.

***

Those entrusted to serve and to care

Are often the first to exploit my despair.

For our world's true wealth is not gold in a vault,

Nor endless profit built on another's fault.

***

It is honesty, compassion, and service that stand,

With dignity and fairness across every land.

So when people suffer, I watch who grows rich;

I look past the smiles, the excuses, and pitch.

***

If dogs grow fat while the beast lies ill,

And shamans prosper from humanity's bill,

Who heals my wounds, who answers the call-

Or have I crowned parasites as doctors of all?

***

“If the beast becomes ill, the dogs fatten;

If man becomes ill, the shaman fattens.”

An ancient saying, sharp as a blade,

Still mirrors the world in which I trade.