Can you imagine,
The screams of a mother on a train,
Separated from her child calling her name,
Herded away and never seen again,
Her child, still screaming out her name?
Can you imagine,
Your husband shot dead,
A pool of blood by the bed,
Your brother before you slain,
A babe bayoneted again and again,
His mother calling out his name,
Another act of unspeakable shame?
Can you imagine,
The pain of a daughter's rape,
Her pleas for mercy as she tries to escape,
Fighting for her honour but all in vain,
Her childhood lost in lust and pain,
Her father calling out her name,
One more act of unspeakable shame?
How can we possibly understand,
Those of us who live in this land,
Where justice reigns and men are free,
Where hunger never touches thee?
No fear have we of the tyrant's hand,
For he lives far away from England.
2 comments:
This is a disturbing vision - really - but the ending lacks thrust. The implication that mindless violence and thuggery don't exist in England is not one that most people will identify with.
Justin,
I think you have missed the point. This is about our inability to comprehend or empathise with the terror, and brutality of life under dicatatorships as during the genocide in Rwanda, Iraq under Saddam Hussein or the murder of Jews by Hitler. The vast majority of people living in this country and most of the Western World, have no comprehension of what it is or would be like to suffer as so many do and are, in places like Zimbabwe, the Congo or Sudan for instance. We are wrongly apathetic to the terrible suffering of millions and we therefore do nothing but what if the boot were on the other foot? Would we not want someone, anyone to come to our aid?
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