Smiles in the Void

There are smiles on the faces of children in places
Where you’d think no smiling survives
There is blood on the papers signed by the rapists
who decree that your charity saves lives

and your water-well tears for pity poor people
wont change their fate or the basic principle
that it’s the system employed that cultivates this void
and you can’t change it with anything so simple

as a charitable heart or an animal rights march
or a tutting-tongue aimed at the TV
nor will your voice be heard by the prophets
that promise perpetual democracy

through Christmas sales soaring and credit-crunch whoring
by the payment of taxes to torturers
by the fear-factor insurers sent to divorce us
from access to the life they’re insuring

by fire and by fury by the judge and the jury
by the bastards that monitor your safety
by the covenant, the sword, and the arm of the lord
by the roadmaps to peace and prosperity

So drop your coins into cups into hands
And try not to feel like a martyr
Since those smiles will exist despite your demands
on a world that doesn’t depend on your charter


November 2008

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