Fabricated Paradise
By Niall Twohig
From William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Framing our social order
in terms of privilege
seems inadequate.
For example,
One might say:
I have privileges
and I want more
folks on the margins
to have access to
to these privileges.
Something seems
missing from this frame.
Another frame gets at it.
It’s a frame offered
by Victor Hugo
who writes:
The paradise of the rich
is made out of the hell of the poor.
His frame reveals It:
A Monster makes
these paradises.
A Monster fools
us into forgetting
the violence it
uses to make
such worlds.
***
Is it a “privilege”
to gain entry into a
heaven built on hell?
Or is it more
a curse?
***
Many of us
are born
between
heaven
and hell:
The limbo
of the middle class.
From limbo,
we see the Monster
from a distance:
crushing poor folk in ghettos,
exploiting poor folk in sweatshops,
bombing poor folk in other countries,
pushing poor folk off their land,
pushing poor folk onto open waters,
pushing air out of poor folk’s lungs.
But don’t forget
the same Monster
is with us:
crushing us in debt,
crushing us with work,
tempting generation
after generation
to sacrifice present
for future.
Tempting generation
after generation
to go through hell
to get to heaven.
Poor, middle class, rich.
We all sacrifice
to the same
monster.
Some sacrifice life.
Some sacrifice time.
Some: their soul.
I want no part in that Monster.
I want no ascent into
Its fabricated heaven.
I prefer downward mobility,
away from its grip.
***
Blessed are the poor
who choose the hell of poverty
over heaven built on hell.
***
To see our society
through this frame
allows soul and solidarity
rather than the soul-crushing
ascent afforded us by the
frame of privilege.