While many sit and moan a lot
Repeating some ancient tale
So self absorbed their suffering
Makes every effort fail.
They should travel around a bit
Maybe get a sense of scale
Notice those who suffer most
Are quite oft’ the last to wail.
For the world is full of suffering
starvation, old age and pain
People who have nothing but...
To whom can they complain?
Tired, frail old people, silent,
sit in the market mud…
Toothless, childless, friendless
No regard for bad or good...
Just another day -
To try to find some way…
A hope the kind will give
So they may eat and drink to live!
The rich avoid the begging eyes
Their hearts too cold to care.
Complaining to each other that
the poor should not be there.
Handing ‘round the cigars
Passing around the booze
Moaning about the economy
And what they have to lose.
They have parcelled up the world
And given it to themselves
Making entertainers out of wizards
And monsters out of elves.
Now at last it’s dawning
That they might have gone too far
Yet still the trees are falling
To produce a greener car
Whatever you get there’s better
However new - it’s old
Greed becomes the salesman
And soon your soul is sold.
So appreciate the good things
The blessings that you’ve got
All the things that come for free
The gifts that you forgot.
Sight and sound, taste and touch
Sunshine, health and love.
Life is full of wondrous gifts
And the best come from above.
Comments
shoe | December 28, 2009 - 17:22
A wonderful message, eloquently executed, much enjoyed,:-}
Mangone | December 28, 2009 - 19:30
Thanks shoe!
Mangone | December 29, 2009 - 23:59
I realise that the line "So they may eat and drink to live!" seems a bit clunky but in the places where these people sit in the mud it is rarely safe to drink the water and so even the poor need to get bottled...
but they can live on about 20P a day.
The sad fact is that usually the tourist don't like to give to 'beggars' and it is generally those who have very little themselves who help the most!
shoe | December 30, 2009 - 10:46
I didn't notice it being clunky, to me it outlined the very lack of basics, like food and drink, that we take for granted in our often plentiful and wastful world, :-}
Mangone | December 30, 2009 - 14:28
Thanks again shoe!
Few people in the UK realise just how lucky they are to have drinkable tap water. It's not until you go to hot places where the water is too polluted to drink, not just full of dangerous bacteria which can be killed by boiling, that you start to understand why Muslim heaven is full of streams and fountains.
You can last quite a while without food but how long without water?
Keiko Shizuru | January 9, 2010 - 21:51
I liked this poem very much ! I like the sarcasm in it. I'm a very sarcastic and ironic person, but I seldon write in that manner. Thanks for sharing!
keiko
Mangone | January 9, 2010 - 22:57
Thanks Keiko!
Conversely, I'm rarely sarcastic in life, nowaday.
It took me a long time to stop being though.
Now I save all my sarcasm for my poetry :O)
Keiko Shizuru | January 10, 2010 - 12:11
Well, I don't find anything wrong in being sarcastic.LOL! For some reason I can't write in a sarcastic way. Maybe it's fear of telling too much of myself.
keiko