What's Wrong With Our World Poem by JohnPeter Creighton

I am close to shivering with cold as I tap this out:
We'd like to take the children to watch the shearing,
Or go to a concert, listen to symphony.
But we have not enough money, we even went overdrafted,
While I was looking for shoes I could hope to afford.

Thing is I'm not alone, there are many more worse off.
I look outside and see the signs of drug addiction;
Even our police chief and two deputies resigned
Something to do with drinking, and what not.
So many people seem to think the police are in on the drug trade,
As well as certain families who attend the big crossroads church.

Our county high school had a 48% drop-out rate
Last year and they've started a program to re-educate those in need.
I have met students with babies, and they're not yet graduated.
You're lucky in this town if you get a warehouse job,
breathing dust of metal shavings and rubber powder.
Our town's favourite charity is cancer, don't you know it?

It's normal for me to walk along the roads in town
Picking up sacks of aluminium on my exercise jaunts.
I can see the torn-up tossed out slips of lotto games,
And thrown out bottles of beer, sometimes whiskey or gin.
On our street lie poppers for nitrous oxide,
And the kids ramble skipping school like there's no tomorrow.

I'm cold as I write this, but we don't dare turn on the heat
which we can't afford if we're to eat well.
We'll tough it out as we have for the past two years,
I'll drink off our vodka and drown anger and fears.
The peace I cherished is vanished in resentments and fears,
So the booze don't help none, but nobody cares?

You go to an AA gathering,
They're doing their damn best downing caffeine and nic.
I can do so much of that, but it just ain't my shtick.
Maybe I'll see them tonight or tomorrow,
Maybe I'll see them next week.
While soldiers marines take it on both cheek,
While people are bombed, stabbed, clubbed, who'll speak?

Let's look at the numbers:
205,500 Iraqis died in the last war and the aftermath,
300,000 dead in Darfur, with over 2 million displaced,
What are the numbers for Congo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe?

Times a wastin', Got to get goin'
To action, for as we speak,
More are dying and flying from the fright
In the darkness even as we get the light.
See you on the other side,
See you on the other side,
Homecoming in the eventide.