Poverty and Power (now with audio)

This is a poem that I wrote about the enormous number of children who starve to death every day in the third world. I accept that there are many people living in poverty and hunger in our own countries, but nothing is on the massive scale that can be found in the third world countries. I will always remember the overpowering sense of helplessness I felt when I visited Soweto, South Africa in 1997. I care so passionately about this subject that I recorded this in a recording studio here in the UK and 'wind music' was added as background music. It is not meant to be pretty, but it is aimed to shock you and make you think. I hope that it does.

Poverty and Power  (#1243320)

Do you know a child
Who will get up to play?
What if they died before tonight?
In the third world children are piled,
Thousands of them die every day,
Poverty is their daily plight.

Do you care? Do you fight?
For you have the power,
You know it can't be right
So many buds don't flower.

Do you have a fridge
That is filled with food?
Unlikely our children will starve,
If we all linked hands, built a bridge,
Wiped out their debts as a prelude,
By that act the dying might halve.

Do you have a home
That is safe, snug and warm?
How would you feel if it fell down?
Bloodied, children's feet have to roam,
Around their eyes and mouths flies swarm,
Obscene to them must seem a jewelled crown.

Do you care? Do you fight?
For you have the power,
You know it can't be right
So many buds don't flower.

Do you have a mind?
Will you stand and say no,
That no more will needlessly die?
Do your utmost to help mankind,
Use your power, make it not so,
Face their truth, stem the tears they cry?

Do you have a child?
Could you stand, watch them die,
Knowing that they could have been saved?
Could you carry on, not feel wild,
Look other children in the eye,
Not by a 'white' lie be enslaved?

Do you care? Will you fight?
For you have the power,
You know it can't be right
So many buds don't flower.

Please fight endlessly,
Use entrusted power!
Make poverty history,
Help all those buds to flower.

Make poverty history
Help all those buds to flower.