Self-Care Under Capitalism

Talk therapy can't curtail
financial inequality
there are no coping skills
that can overcome
capitalism

Society has found a way of
insidiously co-opting self-care
transforming it into a tool
for further oppression
and victim blaming

My yoga is a blessed balm
that soothes my chaffing soul
but it cannot numb the suffering
of the world the way it is with
a sun obscured by industry

I resent the way this covert corruption
soils such inherent goods
forcing me to balance getting better
with holding my gaze steady
on social injustice

I don't want my efforts at wellness
soured with the suspicion I'm being sedated
to better benefit the sinister systems in place
to be more comfortable under the thumb
of insurmountable greed

I will not be gaslit into blaming myself
for not being able to find contentment
in a broken world that could be better
but chooses to stay the same
due to a powerful few

I will not allow mental wellness
to be something to keep me complacent
I will still seek it, but instead use it
to give me the strength I need
to create change

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