Friday, 2 March 2018

In Need




I’ve seen cities that bleed.

Unpaved streets drowned
in desperate mothers, starving fathers,
and crying children crammed into

cardboard cradles.

I’ve watched grandfathers swallow fistfuls
of earth, grandmothers delivering rivers
 across deserts, and infants conquering
 mountains for education.

I’ve felt the cry of an unfed child
drinking crates of unfiltered water.
I’ve felt the parasites in my veins,
the disease in my bones.

I’ve felt the pain of a mother
clinging to a dying child,
until her tears caress
 only a memory.

I’ve seen them with my eyes sewn closed.
I’ve heard them bleeding in my sleep.
I’ve felt them every night since.

And now you stand before me,
arms stained with memories of needles,
teeth eroded with the footprints of chemicals,
begging for just one more
notch in your syringe.

I’ve now seen a kingdom
paved in gold, chasing illusions.
A population, more focused on the next hit
than plate on their table. I see paved streets
littered with unconscious bodies
and paychecks smoked
right down to the filter.

We keep saying there’s a crisis,
that more children clutter sewage grates
than desks in a classroom, and yet
I see no solutions.

I see a world that has everything,
convinced it has nothing, but wanting
anything. I see men dipped in diamonds,
clambering over tombstones huddled
in cardboard houses, unwilling to gift
even a second look.

I see a population hooked on chemicals,
chasing the next hit like crippled children
chased tourist busses across a city.
I see a greed polluting our roads,
the way parasites pollute
unfiltered water wells.

I feel the lack of hope,
the loss in faith, the absence of pride,
the same way I felt the grief
of a mourning mother cradling
a colicked child.

In Need

I’ve seen cities that bleed. Unpaved streets drowned in desperate mothers, starving fathers, and crying chil...