Gifted Already

I still take part in customs of peace and joy,
and try to be that deserving good boy.
But as exchanges have merit where good intent is meant,
I'm happy just with civility, and simple caring, to be content.

With warm lodging, enough food, and comforts of life,
not in fear, violence, and never-ending strife.
There's justice, freedom, and protection in society,
not the chronic cruelty and grief of others' anxiety.

We acquire things to fill some needs,
then follow ads to spend and give - those marketing creeds.
While more things don't always make us content,
Others hope for new ways for energies to be spent.

We are lucky to be here I know is cliché,
it's just that we had no input on where we would stay.
We didn't determine what place to be born,
the "I" in us could here, there, or could be foreign.

Whether luck or a gift, how fortunate to be in peace and free,
that beaten brother, and tortured sis on tv, could be you, could be me.
That Guatemalan woman, stripped by a mob, about to be set on fire,
makes me wonder why her birth place was not mine, and senselessly dire.

As we search for loved ones' gifts at stores like the Gap,
its other meaning is all over the map.
Live news broadcasts the strife of the poor,
and it makes me want less, more and more.