Monday, November 9, 2009

A different lesson from abroad

Head bowed down and hanging low...
she quietly steps into your view.

There's a child in her arms
who silently looks up...
and pleads to you.


With cracked hands, matted hair, and a weary heart.
She's a foreigner and a single mother...
she was already behind from the very start.

From person to person she sheepishly makes her way.
With her hungry eyes lowered,

clinging on to thoughts of a brighter day.

She steps into your view...
She's right in front of you
and yet you pretend not to notice or stare.
You don't even offer a friendly smile

to ease her lonely humble despair.

Some frown, roll their eyes, and continue on as before.
The majority erased her existence

the moment she walked through the door.
Others in their designer brands look away with feelings of disgust...
"She must be a lazy bum."
"She's dirty."
"She's definitely no one to trust."


Is it individual apathy, parents, society…
who can we blame?
These questions are useless to her,

to her it's all the same.
She is more concerned with how to keep her baby warm.
Or where they will seek shelter during the next storm.


She steps into your view... could you not just spare a dime?
Or the simplicity of human acknowledgment…
would THAT take up too much of your precious time?


All alone and faced with noses turned up to her from the upper caste.
In school she dreamt of being a lawyer,
it's funny how things change so fast.
Far far away from her dreams from long ago,

she begs and borrows...
caught up in a vicious cycle...
she consults a bottle to ease her sorrows.
Sleeping on the ground out in the freezing cold.
This is certainly not the 'happily ever after' like her daddy had told.
She searches for work with all her possessions in a sack.
She steps into your view...
it might be just one woman,
but there's thousands just like her on the same dead end track.


Do you really think the elite give a damn where she sleeps?
Why she weeps?
Or if her baby eats?
Fuck no!
But be rest assured… they will sleep warm in their Egyptian cotton sheets.
It's funny that people say… "If there's a will there's a way"…
And yet millions go hungry everyday.
With proper distribution of resources
there is also a HUGE drought in human compassion.
A sickening scarcity of humanity…
can't anyone offer a ration?
People spending thousands on petty shit, like what's in fashion
while others struggle just to see another day.
Someone tell me there is a solution to this dismay.
I am convinced that there must be another way!


Because there is a grotesque difference between the classes.
Minorities, women, single parents, and the elderly fill up the poor masses
The rich get richer
and the poor are screwed over at an alarming rate.
And yet there is no uprising,

no questions asked,
not even a single debate.
How is no one else irate!?!
Can no one stand up straight!

Demand answers,
some equality,
and not just sit around and wait!

Realize that the rich parade around...(smiling and taunting)
on the backs of the poor.
And that it's hard to pick your self up
when you are tied down to the floor.


Understand that there is NOT a lack of resources,
that is for sure.
Realize that the rich get fatter as they spend millions
on plastic surgery, caviar, cars, and things that don't really matter.
Realize that there is power in numbers
and as a whole the middle majority is strong.
But without demands the upper class minority
will continue to have absolute authority.
And this woman who steps into your view,
will continue to cry...
And the millions, just like her
around the world without basic necessities will continue to die.

But for now...
She's STILL standing there in your view.

Thoughts running through your head...
you might as well just follow suit and blankly stare right on through.

Will anyone ever give a true voice to her muzzled pain?
And if they did...
would anyone else listen

or would it all just be in vain?

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