This poem was written on 30 November 1984. It was included in the anthology ‘Eternity’s Coming Tomorrow’ (Dogma Press, Wellingborough, 2003)
Sullen eyes watch a world go by,
But the indifference does not make them cry
For waiting for death
Is the only path they know.
It is alien for them to tend the plants that might grow
As they are too busy tending to the dead.
They do not know the insanity
Is prevalent amongst those who kill
By indifference to the facts.
Ignorance in itself is not a crime;
But it is be apathetic all the time
To needy people in desperate lands.
Politicians speak about tonnes of rice
For to talk about thousands of dead is not nice
Before nine o’clock, when the children
Might hear about the real world outside
And it is easier to gloss over harsh realities than to hide
From the uncomfortable questions of a child.
The television shows a man digging the ground
Not for fruit and vegetables but where, in future, might be
found
The corpses of his wife and infant.
The sun shines mercilessly upon an unsheltered group
Not there for sunbathing but to scoop
The grains of rice that might be sent to them.
The people have been swindled for they wanted life,
Instead they received death and were stabbed by a knife
In the back by prosperous politicians
Who speak, with scotch in one hand and cigar in the other,
And talk down when referring to ‘or brothers’
Whose enlarged stomachs are the result of famine and not
feasts.
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