The World We Live In
It strikes me that the world we live in is a stranger place than most,
Inequality, hatred, fear and distaste seem to cling to every single street corner.
The news we read simply speaks of crime and catastrophe in our delivery post,
We see stabbings or shootings on the pages along with a planet growing much warmer
The teenage kids in their rooms all fight deadly battles inside their own heads,
And with tired eyes and grazed bones they start each new day scared.
The marriages of their parents seem to cascade from partners to newly wed’s,
And within the year they’re left questioning which of them really cared.
Don’t forget the girls staring at their mirrors hoping to resemble the next big star,
As they apply their day’s war paint they worry which boy will make a comment today.
Before they leave the front door their father yells at them to get in his brand new car,
He can’t be late again with his boss strict on lates and sacking them without pay.
The war-weathered elderly lie in their cold single beds with their heat bill unpaid,
They’ve lost their beloved long ago and their pension barely covers the costs they left.
With a government turning schemes into cuts and benefits into wasted foreign aid,
A life of post office walks and bingo at the hall leaves them just about bereft.
The prisoners in their cells reconsider every single sad choice they had made,
With heavy hearts and glazed eyes they map their mistakes on the four walls they see,
Keeping danger from the streets seems to be of little concern as these lines they fade,
While the leaders of this nation sit behind desks hidden from sight under lock and key.
Like the writers and singers and poets before us we have to show our face
Outlined before you are areas of major concern with pain and regret and open cuts
And if we are to call ourselves members of this wide reaching human race,
Then surely compassion, honesty and trust should come first with no ifs or buts?
