Coming Of Age

 

So many crazy hang-ups, passing fads
And mad fanaticisms sweep our lives
When in our youthful innocence, our Dads
And councillors all fail to recognise
The cause of hunger, want, and deprivation,
Within our own, and every other nation.

All governments and managements are blind
To what is fundamentally unjust:
Oppression of the workers, womankind,
The grinding of the poor into the dust,
And inequalities in wealth so great
As to quite rightfully engender hate.

We take a swift and scathing look around,
And in an instant put the world to right,
Not comprehending why they haven’t found
In centuries what we have overnight.
Such is the perspicacity of youth,
And such is age to obfuscate the truth.

But as into the world we wend our way,
The light of innocence begins to fade,
The black and white are blended into grey,
The game seems less and less a sick charade,
Until at last, we understand what seemed
So simple, is more complex than we dreamed.

[The above was first published in A Purpose Strong And Bright, and in PARAPHERNALIA, No 1, DEC-JAN 88. Click here for a scan of the poem as it appeared in Paraphernalia.]

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