by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor

A collaboration with William Shakespeare!

To read Irene’s new poem click:

Envy: The Green-Eyed Monster

by Irene Fowler

Envy; the green-eyed egoistic, angry, fearsome, deadly, monster
Sadly, dastardly, woefully; no stranger to the entire human race
Equal opportunity beast, entertained by, and at home in us all; bar none
A demanding, ungrateful, unforgiving, insatiable and querulous guest
Bossing, supine, hostile, insecure; unkind minds and hearts
It lurks, and skulks, in the dark shadows, recesses, and corners, of the sacred soul
Requiring a steady, costly, copious diet of ill-will, rage and bitterness
Feeding fat and obliterating, boundaries of healthy; inspiration, ambition, and competition
A proximate cause of depression, anxiety, inferiority, unhappiness and prejudice
Unreined envy in the driver’s seat, heads nowhere, but to the abyss, of incremental lunacy.

“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”

Othello – William Shakespeare

**

Envy; a grotesque, alien power, absent in newborns and infants
Close kin, of hatred, spite, disquiet and grievance
A human parasite, more deeply embedded, than any, intestinal virus-infected worm
Burrowing deep, hardly ever willing to easily surrender, or yield any ground
Assuming, the stature of an ominous, prehistoric, megalith
Present in every family setting
Present in every group dynamic
Present, in every tier of human, and professional enterprise.
Present in every sphere of worldly endeavour.

“Tis much when sceptres are in children’s hands,
But more when envy breeds unkind division:
There comes the ruin, there begins confusion.“

Henry VI – William Shakespeare

**

Envy; alive and well, in the highest echelons of world politics, and religious hierarchies
Implacable and irrational; an impediment to harmony and human progress
Before, and after the fact, accessory to capitalist depravity and predation
Bane of our planetary wellbeing, driving mindless consumerism, and concomitant climate change
Uncaged, ferocious envy, a factor of heinous aggression; unjust wars, crimes against humanity, and anarchy
Goading and inciting power-hungry, rogue-autocrat, Vladimir Putin, and morally bankrupt, corrupt Trumpism
The green-eyed monster: shredding the twin hearts, of International Order and Global Democracy; in one fell swoop.

“Such men as he be never at heart’s ease
While they behold a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous.”

Julius Caesar – William Shakespeare

 **

© 2022 by Irene Fowler

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