I wanted to be ready when the time came So I studied hard and made my name On the college scene As someone who knows how to dream And I did business studies then politics International relations to call it quits And I only did so so But I’m not here to excel in what you want me to know I want to know the frame of mind That means we can leave 80% behind When we talk about the global north And we dream of sipping tea on our front porch Without realising the claim to land Is something the poor can’t understand Coz farmers in India barely survive And many don’t want to be alive At the subsistence rate Save the kids from the parents fate Is what they state When asked in a questionnaire And I know it isn’t fair But isn’t that just life, they say But what if it doesn’t have to be that way I see another path One where God’s wrath Is not the standard bearer And no carer Goes unpaid Just so that girl “slayed” In an instagram post But you look like you’ve seen a ghost But maybe it’s just the starving frame Of a child in Africa - always the same Isn’t it And your quick wit Won’t absolve you from The privilege you’re holding wrong So I must write to make it okay And who will listen to what I have to say If I say it on my own But the colours that the prism has thrown Has shown Me that there is another might Than the dark of night And that a dawn to break Is the place where the people wake And see that their brother is their friend And their neighbour must make amends With who he’s come to be And every child is born free To a woman in our history Or a non binary folk Must we make the weak carry the yoke And pull the weight up the hill Does a country have the right to kill Its own citizens or its enemies in fields In martial arts the one who yields Is the one who the wind blows with And the flow is not something that can stick To the pan when you’re flipping eggs Don’t say that we’ve made our beds
What is a starship when it's at home
And must a tomcat always roam
Or be swan faithful by the sea
Like the Children of Lír that wait for me
And was there some kind of ancient fable
That monumental on the table
Made enough bread for us all to eat
But there's millions in the bank and death on the street
How can we let this continue
As if loss is on the menu
And the rolling hills of vagabonds
Play the fool like two dumb blondes
And I know this is not the female's fault
But we go along with the lie we've bought
As a child not of our womb
Starves to death in an empty room
Full of faces who just placade
And there are millions in that state
As we deny, deny
We just simply shouldn't try
To bring this to fruition
Just spending more on ammunution
Seems to relieve a conscience broke
From all the words we have not spoke
And I cannot speak for myself
Because I have my own story of wealth
And how I try to keep it from my door
But if I had it I could give more
And make a change on that plain
But what if I could not contain
The contempt and the corruption
Like Vesuvius and eruption
Like lava and all it encases
The modern history and what it erases
Or geography to keep us asleep
To the promise that together would keep
And am I just out on the run
Or do I speak to some
Who feel the same way I do
The conundrum and me and you
Do you live in a makeshift home
A cardboard box you live in alone
And are there decorations on the wall
Or do you bother with all that at all
Coz I've watched lives burned down to dust
Watched the vagaries and the absent trust
As everything turned out naught
Like you're a fisherman and your net was caught
But I've also seen sunrise break up the day
Tell the night that it will be okay
And the fading of twilight come the dawn
Is like Easter when the winter is gone
And I've lived both sides of the conunderum
I been so sure that I left them wondering
If it's just a delusion I've held onto
But the truth is fire and it's burning you
And there are eaves that run with the power of rain
A summer solstice I wouldn't do again
To feel the pummeling water down
Like my feet are puddles in the air that drown
Out the noise of unimpeded consequence
People will tell you that you're due for rent
When all you've done is breathe in the air
And enjoy the facilities that are left there
So, what is the future likely to be
Will we bury the ocean under the sea
Will we poison the atmosphere and heat the air
Til the people in Africa know we don't care
Coz their land is arid and often dry
The rivers run cold and the children cry
Out for a piece of food to eat
While we make war under our own feet
And will I just be a paragon in the future looking back
I'm not setting myself up to be a life hack
I wanna make a difference and I'll make it now
If the Universe conspires with me somehow
To release the pain like I'm lancing a boil
So the robots do the work and the people toil
In sweatshops in Asia and all of our shoes
Coz less than the amount we use to pay our dues
The Poetry Book 