Apathy As Atrocity
Shibboleth utterances convey attractive arguments down a slippery slope
But still there’s not enough rope to reel in the grievances of the day
We are dying to deliver an encomium for some leading moral soul
Who understands the heavy toll we pay by the day
Sometimes by the second, fleeting and finite
Alas, we have yet to find such a worthy candidate to champion the cause
Who, despite all his flaws, takes a firm global stand
And strikes up the international band live in concert for more than some Special
Every telethon goes off the air, its moment in the public conscious archived
Hold the phone now, stop the show
We need one more NGO
“People For the Ethical Treatment of People”
Without a wealthy figurehead as Chair of the Board
Whose stomach has only ever growled from overeating
Whose obesity threatens his ability to squish into leathered limousines
For when did a fat cat ever help a desperate hummingbird calling out in the wind
I’ll have to look it up in the empty annals of oblivion
Teach a man to fish and he’ll soon concoct his own recipe for tartar sauce
I’ll bet my crumbling slum shack on it
Remember me, please, as one voice who spoke up to the world’s listeners
I am the filthy body turning purple shivering on a Rideau Street sidewalk
A sun-caked child playing soccer around syringes on a blistering Nigerian dirt road
Chaos and havoc are my closest friends in this dusty gravel patch of paradise lost
But chronic hunger and creeping famine often tag along
With their Top 40 hit starvation song
What I lack in amenities I make up for in Technicolor dreams of banquet feasts
Where I lounge on a divan nibbling luscious grapes as antiquated Eastern kings
Chronicled in books I’ll never read because I’m not quite up to speed
Because I can’t concentrate on an empty stomach shrinking daily
I’m sorry to adjust your view and burden you with what I say
But could you honestly live on less than one dollar a day?
You call crumbs in bed a nuisance; I call it a picnic
A hungry being is a city under siege
Whose fortified walls are withering like ancient battered gates
Take a good look at how the other half live
Then reach deep into willpower, it’s in you to give
Yes, but don’t gather too close, I value personal space
I might slap your face with an ice cold statistic you’d rather not hear
I may not even last this upcoming year, my darling dear
Long enough to receive your High Holiday kindness in seasonal dose
It would be nice to end sanctions on the indigent mass
Those of us in the lower depths of destitution’s underclass
It would be nice to lift the crippling embargo against compassion’s full stretch
And convict apathy in the International Criminal Court of crimes against humanity
I won’t inject awkward vibes into the small crowded room of the mind
Where the underlying tensions may give birth to anger or action
I shouldn’t shake away ignorance from pressed lapels
With choice words like alleviate and dispel/Stricken or exacerbate
Though perhaps if you could pardon my innate urge to highlight the disparity
Then all the world’s harps would strum to the sound of ten trillion sorrows
Through nimble fingers of collective conscience
Then bagpipes and violins would leap into neatly-formed rows
To wail the warm earthly emotions of anguish on a catastrophic scale
I should warn you at first the floodgates might burst
Into an outpouring of despair coupled with confusion’s debilitating delusion
That nothing can be done before such widespread disaster
Or that these travesties are natural and should be left alone
I should warn you further that only the poor can save the poor
So learn the easy way while its offer is made available
I would hate for you to finally enforce empathetic justice
Only once Fate in its fickle wisdom
Humbles your standard to rest on humiliated par with my own
Prince and Pauper suddenly reunited by human revolution or divine judgment
Arriving unexpectedly to crash negligence’s exclusive gala soirée
Shattering comfortable solitudes between ivory tower and lowly pit of affliction
When fields lie fallow and gardens go untended by tender hands
The lands cry out for attention in affectionate dimensions
When water sources are scarce and tainted at best
Challenge never rests for a sabbatical from parched-throat oppression
And we the forgotten populous are left stranded in dire isolation
Like a worthy bride at a loss for a loyal, loving groom
I shudder to think you could leave me teetering on the brink
When assistance is readily at hand for the global citizen of concern
Who can conscientiously discern between realistic reaction and impotent inaction
Ineptness is not the answer to the ongoing question of my peril
Now existence is sterile but it may eventually come alive
It may even flourish and thrive when goodwill has its way
And civilization’s flute plays a universal melody channeled across hemispheres
Indifference is a continent in need of a good swift conquering
Its army of excuses court-martialed and disbanded with dishonorable discharge
Imagine the heart-rending harmony when new legions of hope set foot amid turmoil
Battalions of encouragement roaming the avenues of entrenched dismay
A brigade of peace to a war-torn corner of strife
Lying too long huddled alone under the cutting knife
The finest united force should be an infantry of easement to allay local fears
To buttress the fresh tears of joy that faith in fraternity was no mere ploy
If would you let me utter a genuine prayer from the gutter
I would marginalize succor in favor of stern demands on world governments
Proven measures are neglected treasures where I come from
I have no brittle Dead Sea Scroll to explain how I lived
Only a fragile corpse to attest to my defiance in the face of emaciated faces
Staring back at me from a lifetime of glass mirror reflections
You can always turn on trusty PBS for a sample taste of my distress
The cadaver tells the tale of how mankind continually fails
To address the plight of the impoverished whose basic needs go unmet
Despite acts of excess elsewhere carelessly conducted for superficial spectacle
Like competitive eating competitions where some skinny Japanese youth
Is widely extolled for stuffing his thin frame with fifty wieners in under five minutes
I know life is beautiful from hearsay – juicy gossip to my ears
A rumor as old as the soil that coughs up blood in my front yard
I want to believe it but only with good reason
There is surely something more that I’ve come to know
Poverty cannot be solved by charity, forgive me for saying
The plain truth hurts but isn’t it a beautiful pain?
I’m not asking for much, really, as such
Don’t look away, neither by percent nor degree
I invite you to share this opportunity to care
Don’t look away, lest you shut our eyes forever
But still there’s not enough rope to reel in the grievances of the day
We are dying to deliver an encomium for some leading moral soul
Who understands the heavy toll we pay by the day
Sometimes by the second, fleeting and finite
Alas, we have yet to find such a worthy candidate to champion the cause
Who, despite all his flaws, takes a firm global stand
And strikes up the international band live in concert for more than some Special
Every telethon goes off the air, its moment in the public conscious archived
Hold the phone now, stop the show
We need one more NGO
“People For the Ethical Treatment of People”
Without a wealthy figurehead as Chair of the Board
Whose stomach has only ever growled from overeating
Whose obesity threatens his ability to squish into leathered limousines
For when did a fat cat ever help a desperate hummingbird calling out in the wind
I’ll have to look it up in the empty annals of oblivion
Teach a man to fish and he’ll soon concoct his own recipe for tartar sauce
I’ll bet my crumbling slum shack on it
Remember me, please, as one voice who spoke up to the world’s listeners
I am the filthy body turning purple shivering on a Rideau Street sidewalk
A sun-caked child playing soccer around syringes on a blistering Nigerian dirt road
Chaos and havoc are my closest friends in this dusty gravel patch of paradise lost
But chronic hunger and creeping famine often tag along
With their Top 40 hit starvation song
What I lack in amenities I make up for in Technicolor dreams of banquet feasts
Where I lounge on a divan nibbling luscious grapes as antiquated Eastern kings
Chronicled in books I’ll never read because I’m not quite up to speed
Because I can’t concentrate on an empty stomach shrinking daily
I’m sorry to adjust your view and burden you with what I say
But could you honestly live on less than one dollar a day?
You call crumbs in bed a nuisance; I call it a picnic
A hungry being is a city under siege
Whose fortified walls are withering like ancient battered gates
Take a good look at how the other half live
Then reach deep into willpower, it’s in you to give
Yes, but don’t gather too close, I value personal space
I might slap your face with an ice cold statistic you’d rather not hear
I may not even last this upcoming year, my darling dear
Long enough to receive your High Holiday kindness in seasonal dose
It would be nice to end sanctions on the indigent mass
Those of us in the lower depths of destitution’s underclass
It would be nice to lift the crippling embargo against compassion’s full stretch
And convict apathy in the International Criminal Court of crimes against humanity
I won’t inject awkward vibes into the small crowded room of the mind
Where the underlying tensions may give birth to anger or action
I shouldn’t shake away ignorance from pressed lapels
With choice words like alleviate and dispel/Stricken or exacerbate
Though perhaps if you could pardon my innate urge to highlight the disparity
Then all the world’s harps would strum to the sound of ten trillion sorrows
Through nimble fingers of collective conscience
Then bagpipes and violins would leap into neatly-formed rows
To wail the warm earthly emotions of anguish on a catastrophic scale
I should warn you at first the floodgates might burst
Into an outpouring of despair coupled with confusion’s debilitating delusion
That nothing can be done before such widespread disaster
Or that these travesties are natural and should be left alone
I should warn you further that only the poor can save the poor
So learn the easy way while its offer is made available
I would hate for you to finally enforce empathetic justice
Only once Fate in its fickle wisdom
Humbles your standard to rest on humiliated par with my own
Prince and Pauper suddenly reunited by human revolution or divine judgment
Arriving unexpectedly to crash negligence’s exclusive gala soirée
Shattering comfortable solitudes between ivory tower and lowly pit of affliction
When fields lie fallow and gardens go untended by tender hands
The lands cry out for attention in affectionate dimensions
When water sources are scarce and tainted at best
Challenge never rests for a sabbatical from parched-throat oppression
And we the forgotten populous are left stranded in dire isolation
Like a worthy bride at a loss for a loyal, loving groom
I shudder to think you could leave me teetering on the brink
When assistance is readily at hand for the global citizen of concern
Who can conscientiously discern between realistic reaction and impotent inaction
Ineptness is not the answer to the ongoing question of my peril
Now existence is sterile but it may eventually come alive
It may even flourish and thrive when goodwill has its way
And civilization’s flute plays a universal melody channeled across hemispheres
Indifference is a continent in need of a good swift conquering
Its army of excuses court-martialed and disbanded with dishonorable discharge
Imagine the heart-rending harmony when new legions of hope set foot amid turmoil
Battalions of encouragement roaming the avenues of entrenched dismay
A brigade of peace to a war-torn corner of strife
Lying too long huddled alone under the cutting knife
The finest united force should be an infantry of easement to allay local fears
To buttress the fresh tears of joy that faith in fraternity was no mere ploy
If would you let me utter a genuine prayer from the gutter
I would marginalize succor in favor of stern demands on world governments
Proven measures are neglected treasures where I come from
I have no brittle Dead Sea Scroll to explain how I lived
Only a fragile corpse to attest to my defiance in the face of emaciated faces
Staring back at me from a lifetime of glass mirror reflections
You can always turn on trusty PBS for a sample taste of my distress
The cadaver tells the tale of how mankind continually fails
To address the plight of the impoverished whose basic needs go unmet
Despite acts of excess elsewhere carelessly conducted for superficial spectacle
Like competitive eating competitions where some skinny Japanese youth
Is widely extolled for stuffing his thin frame with fifty wieners in under five minutes
I know life is beautiful from hearsay – juicy gossip to my ears
A rumor as old as the soil that coughs up blood in my front yard
I want to believe it but only with good reason
There is surely something more that I’ve come to know
Poverty cannot be solved by charity, forgive me for saying
The plain truth hurts but isn’t it a beautiful pain?
I’m not asking for much, really, as such
Don’t look away, neither by percent nor degree
I invite you to share this opportunity to care
Don’t look away, lest you shut our eyes forever
