Wikimedia image 

Generosity

Too often generosity
must suffer the pomposity
of that rich soul who grants it to
recompense those lucky few
for all he gouged throughout his life—
blind to their needs and lives of strife.

The library that bears his name
should also bear the stain of shame.
His reputation  for charity
indeed, had been a rarity
for all the years he cheated workers,
calling them deadbeats or shirkers.

When they asked for a living wage,
their pleas were met by silent rage,
beatings, dockings, firings, 
lock-outs and rehirings
of other hungry men who stayed
for meager wages that he paid.

The dedications will proclaim
his noble acts and spread his fame,
but the world will not take note,
nor will the history books quote
how his empire was slowly carved
out of those masses who slowly starved

The Daily Addictions prompt today was generosity.