The absolute in dangerous human traits is greed!
It has so many facets, it well may be a creed.
No matter where or when, or how or why, it thrives;
It is a certainty, it touches all our lives.
The greed factor exists in other ways than take;
It leads a healthy life in methods it can make.
What’s yours is mine, if I want it…and I’ll try’
This happens all too often, with no reason why.
Some see theft as a form of competition, too;
If I can get away with it, the dirt’s on you.
And then we have that classic credo, like as not,
It’s not illegal until when you have been caught.
You also do not think it’s wrong in daily fare,
Where you find ways where you can get more than your share.
When we say “prices are too high” we think they steal’
But, on that mind-set, it comes down to how you feel.
So conquests, wars, or sites of eminent domain,
Their singular examples of sheer greed remain.
Perhaps there is one point on which we can agree—
The history of humans: “What’s in it for me?”
© Richard Williams