Unearned Suffering

by Ed Sanders

All the people born
with anvils in their souls

—unearned suffering

All the children
that had to work in mines

got TB   got black lung
so many died young

—unearned suffering

All the back breaking work
milling and killing
cleaning up slobs

making the calm life glow for a few

—unearned suffering

The River of Malice
is one strong force
to block
bread and roses
& every chalice

but did not Martin Luther King
speak of it that hot August day?

Did he not offer the hope that
“unearned suffering is redemptive”?

Is it really that? Oh I wish it were!

August ‘63 was for the “veterans of creative suffering”
—before the time of murder

But 2005 saw unearned suffering
worthy of the days of Poseidon