It would be my shame....

                                 

It would be my shame

And yours too

If our children

Still stormed streets

With angry placards

Hearts pounding in sedition

Singing,

“All we are saying….”

If they’d still shout

And leap for joy,

“Up NEPA!”

If they’d still

Loll and recline at home

Because the gates of schools

Remain unopened,

If they’d still wheel a barrow

To buy water from

The next street

If after S S 3

They’d be unable

To spell their names.

It would be my shame

But yours too.

(First appeared in Sunday Sun Review, January 6 2013;

Shortlisted for the KorloueNow poetry competition 2012.)