Cause and effect

Some are not really causes
But just symptoms
And we misdiagnose
A sickness
For a symptom
Of the real sickness

The cause
And the effect
Are often interchanged

For instance
Is poverty the cause
Of crime
Or is poverty
Only the symptom
Of it?

For instance
Is ignorance
The cause of poverty
Or is it simply
An effect of poverty?

Or is poverty
Nothing but an effect
Of ignorance?

Or is poverty
Just an effect
Of an oppression
Of the rich
Taking much
From the poor
Who gets poorer
Everyday
Because there
Are no reforms
Coming
To solve
His poverty
His ignorance
His having to commit a crime
To survive
His poverty
His ignorance
His being a crime
Of
Society itself
who never cared
And wanted him
Who never
Instituted the much
Promised reforms?

And so you doubt
The cause and effect
The effect from cause
And if you did not mind so
Well
They may always be
Interchanged
And mistaken
For the symptoms
The conditions
That always
Are
there deceiving.