Mural by Diego Rivera: Man at the Crossroads/Man, Controller of the Universe
The city lights stretch as sighs across the glass
of penthouses—
where laughter pools
in crystal flutes
and time trickles slowly through velvet.
Men in suits exchange metaphors for money,
women with mirrors for eyes
inhale
powdered illusions, they wear weekends
like silk robes—
soft, careless, and vanishing.
Below, the rusted air is thick as hands
with no tasks grip rails too long,
and eyes fix upon space between want and was.
Dreams clump like wet newspapers
in alley drains,
the clock hands spin fast,
unnoticed and days arrive dressed as debts.
The rich speak in futures; the poor recite pasts.
Both stretch meaning
until it snaps, an ellipse trailing toward silence.
In their echo, we hear not difference,
but detachment.
What if value was not currency
but communion?
What if work was not survival but service?
What if we broke the ellipse, looped the arc
and met in the middle?
Philosophy must descend from towers,
wear calluses, learn hunger, and love anyway.
The solution is not to redistribute wealth—
but to redistribute worth.
We are standing at the mouth of crossroads,
where one path gleams with illusion,
and the other is unpaved, overgrown—
humming
with the wildness of untried futures.
To choose is not just action,
but admission: that this system, for all its shimmer,
is broken glass.
Crisis is not collapse— it is clarity.
It arrives not to end us, but to wake us.
And in its blaze,
a brief, blinding mercy: a chance to choose again.
Photo credits: Pinterest
Submitting this poem for dVerse Anthology – Krisis: Poetry at the Crossroads 📩
Posted for Open Link Night #385 @dVerse Poets Pub
36 Responses
Wow… this is such a tour de force… to me the key is this:
“The solution is not to redistribute wealth—
but to redistribute worth.”
And I do love the way it offers a path ahead out of crisis from all the conundrum we may leave.
Thank you so much, Bjorn 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
There are some lines that tingle the spine, others that just about knock one flat, and still more that make one gasp…and that’s only after a first exploratory read–masterful.
Thank you so much, Ain 😀 so glad the poem and its imagery appealed to you 💄❤️
Sanaa, wise words. I pray mercy gives us another chance. Excellent poem!
Amen! Thank you so much, Lisa 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
A stunning response to Rivera’s mural, Sanaa, and too many excellent lines and phrase to comment on. The opening stanza alone is gorgeous, and I love the thought of women wearing weekends like silk robes, and the way the poem turns on dreams clumping ‘like wet newspapers in alley drains’ and we get a glimpse of the poor and the choice at the crossroad.
Thank you so much, Kim 😀 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
“Philosophy must descend from towers,
wear calluses, learn hunger, and love anyway.”
Stopped me in my tracks.
Thank you so much, Petru 🙂 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
It starts like a John Lennon song. I like this line: an ellipse trailing toward silence.
In their echo, we hear not difference… I do hope we all wake up.
Thank you so much, Colleen 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
Welcome to capitalism’s putrid hammer. Wonderful stretching and nailing of the paradoxes of money’s towering phallus. There’s an eros to it but its really about denying death its humbling truth.
Thank you so much, Brendan 🙂 so glad the poem and its imagery appealed to you 💄❤️
Sanaa – I hope this is to be a submission by you for the Krisis – it is so powerful and filled with insight
“What if value was not currency
but communion?
What if work was not survival but service?”
and
“The solution is not to redistribute wealth—
but to redistribute worth. “
Thank you so much, Andrew 😀 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
Very eloquently written, Sanaa! I love what you did with the prompt painting. You are right sometimes we have to hit bottom in order to see our way forward!
I love this line…
Philosophy must descend from towers,
wear calluses, learn hunger, and love anyway.
Thank you so much, Dwight 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
Such a rich write, replete with alliterations and metaphors that enhances the beauty of the mural. Bravo, Sanaa!💕💕
Thank you so much, Punam 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
What if we broke the ellipse, looped the arc
and met in the middle?
and if we did that, we might end up with that beautiful infinity sign, figure of eight, that for me represennts mutual loving exchanges which witnesses and values the Other in relationship…
Thank you Sanaa for daring to visualise the alternatives we can aspire to…
Thank you so much, Kathy 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
I love love the first stanza, Sanaa!
❤️❤️❤️
Redistributing worth is a good concept!
But, how can value & worth be understood?
Thank you so much for your input, Anita 🙂 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
Sanaa–maybe you should write more often when you’re sleep-deprived! 😉 This is a stunning response to the mural. You’re submitting this one, yes?
“Crisis is not collapse— it is clarity.”–this is something I need to hold onto in our present time.
Hahaha you are too kind! Yes, I am submitting this poem to dVerse Anthology! So glad you enjoyed it, Merril! 💄❤️
Wise, wise words in your poem, Sanaa. Brava! Wonderfully done~ <3
Thank you so much, Jennifer 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
This whole poem is just exquisite, Sanaa, like being slapped into consciousness. I love all of it, too many good lines to quote! ❤️
Thank you so much, Sunra 😀 so glad the poem and its imagery appealed to you 💄❤️
What if we did break the ellipse …. we can, we must, loved this, and then the last line – o yes indeed! ❤️
Thank you so much, Paul 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
Lots of great lines in this write. I particularly like “Men in suits exchange metaphors for money”
Thank you so much, Shaun 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️