Diamonds Are Not Forever

New poem.

We have been speaking for minutes, 
decades, centuries
on the nature of inequality —

we have watched an entire
concocted history
driven by it — 

we have shown how 
blood
is the grease for it —

we have shown that
even the diamonds
used to symbolize
eternity and love
are greased in
blood —

and still,
things are bloody,
blood flows, blood rises.

in closing, then,
in sad and angry closing

we offer the truth that 
the four Cs —

Color, Cut,
Clarity, Carat weight — 

are artificial,
are designed to facilitate commerce,
are purely cynical exaltations

of a central metaphor;

in closing, 
what we oppose is
the unnatural,
flawless, 
white,
heavy diamond

as
the standard
for all stone,

and we are unwilling
to mine it
any longer.