The community of the poor and jobless stand up today
A hundred million strong or weak? do you see their faces?
Amongst them I know not what to do
Now I bow down my head, for
There’s a feeling that something of enormity
Has vanished from within my chest cavity
My brethren lacking livelihood, workless, stand here in sad array
Our brethren who live in dire straits, are bent over today
Behind them upright, wives and children, in their millions
Hundreds of thousands of rows, parallel in formation
Reaching to the horizon of the equator
Positions are available no more
For them in office, factory or store
And this torment becomes all pervading
With children uprooted from their schooling
Disease and cure poles apart, never meeting
Hire purchase instalments disintegrating
When will the portals of employment ever be opening
Dark, dark indeed are the skies of our situation
Downcast, downcast indeed is the climate of this nation
Now I bow down my head, for
There’s a feeling that something of enormity
Has vanished from within my chest cavity
My brethren
We really must do something
No matter how difficult and daunting.
II
From that hundred million
How many have lost their jobs and eat but half a meal a day?
I know not
From that hundred million
How many have kidney disease, advanced pregnancy, or lung
infection?
How could I know
From that hundred million
How many babies get no milk or other nutrition?
I truly do not know
From that hundred million
How many children drop out from school and lack accommodation
Don’t ask me
From that hundred million
How many become deranged, submerged in debt and obligation
Why do you ask that?
From that hundred million
How many laugh inanely and plan their own perdition
My, how improper even to pose such a question
From that hundred million
How many languish sick and reach the grave dead from starvation
Enough, avast, just stop this interrogation
My brethren
We really must do something
No matter how difficult and daunting.
1998
