This is “2024” by Wilbert Sanders, known as Jazz the Poet.
AIDS is curable with a single pill,
But 20,000 is needed to make a deal
Since the CDC owns all pharmacies.
Within this nationwide conspiracy
Cocaine and heroin
Are obsolete drugs
Replaced by mind-altering ear plugs,
Which nuke brain cells with electronic waves,
Sending many people to early graves.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey are now gated communities
Supervised and owned by prison industries
Where inmates make plugs for free.
Militia men kill minorities on sight,
Causing mass confusion and racial fights.
Drones constantly flying overhead
To monitor the living and count the dead.
Educational buildings were annihilated
Ensuring our youth remain uneducated,
Detached from their culture and history,
Increasing power of the prison industry,
Turning many into gangsters and thugs
Or hustlers selling illegal ear plugs.
Obviously, this story is fabricated,
Imaginary, and somewhat exaggerated.
In actuality, just a play on words,
But the likeness to reality is quite absurd,
Such as militiamen killing minorities.
These events are happening currently.
Or lifesaving meds being priced so high,
The poor and uninsured are left to die.
Presently, there’s a cure for hepatitis C
Denied to prisoners in captivity,
And we’re really forced to work for free.
Public schools are closing across the nation
With funds slashed for education,
But billions spent on incarceration.
As I see it, the future is dark, no light in sight,
Not even a spark,
Especially in the world of politics,
A bad situation whoever I pick.
For whom shall I cast my vote
When it’s trickery and hatred they promote?
If society doesn’t produce a cure,
It will very soon be 2024.
Thank you. These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
