20161023 (empathy)

As to whether Dump would accept the results of the election, "I'll keep you in suspense."

When I requested an allowance 

My father told me, “Shine my

Shoes.” He put no store by teens

Getting financial aid by dint

Of age alone. Clothing, food, 

And a roof over my head for the

Projected eighteen years of  

Minority seemed burden

Enough. He quickly retold of 

His own youth that the family

Expected him as a sixteen year 

Old to get a full-time job. If

He wished to stay in the home

He’d have to turn his entire 

Wages over to his mom for

Meals and a bed to sleep in. 

I wasn’t going to be treated 

Like the spoiled rich who 

Dipped their hands in some 

Free flowing stream of bills 

And coins to scoop as much as

They wished. Our place in the 

System was to produce goods 

Or services and demand what

The market would bear. I never

Got an allowance but I was

Allowed to keep all I earned, to

Deposit it in a savings account.

Money for movies or social

Goings out had to be cribbed

From the savings stash. Still

I had to polish my father’s

Shoes which I openly resented

Because no allowance followed.

Sticking my left hand inside 

I felt the crude bumps from

The bones of his feet, the smell,

Which oddly were unnoticeable

When I polished my own. Other

Chores were expected too, not

Spelled out in a published list, 

Limited to these obligations

And no others. Sadly my verbal

Contract consisted mostly of “and

Other duties as assigned.” I

Presume most of us grew up 

Under similar conditions and

Easily identified the thrust 

Of Bob Dylan’s “You Gotta

Serve Somebody.” Maybe that’s

What was missing in Dump’s 

Upbringing to make him the 

Sociopath he is today. He didn’t

Have to polish his dad’s shoes,

Or his own. As for serving 

Somebody—fuggedabodit! 

Today neurologists report they

Can see the empathetic regions

Of the brain scintillate in FMRIs

Of normals while those of narcissists

Stay dark as doom. All is not lost, 

They caution: plasticity allows 

For retraining the brain. Perhaps

In Dump’s youth there was an 

Optimal time for his gyri to 

Respond to the feelings of others

But those lessons were forgone

Because of their wealth. He sailed

On, never troubling those waters. 

His behavior now is limited 

To those practices which

Earlier proved successful—

Whining, bullying, grabbing. 

If only his parents had asked

Him, “Donny, would you 

Want other people to treat 

You the way you just treated

That other little kid?” Then his

Gyri might have sparked to life

To help him become a real boy.

c. 2016, J.S.Manista