While by Mario Edwards

While mothers with infants,
Eke out an existence on sordid city streets,
The leaders and exemplars in our society,
Flirt and frolic with the elite,
While the fruits of our blood and sweat,
Are lavished on meaningless frivolities,
Our streets are paved with beggars and destitutes,
While our leaders fritter away our hope
Our youngsters seek solace in dope

While we pursue questionable economic policies,
Our economy succumbs to the wiles of recession,
While we squander our resources on grandiose edifices,
The off-spring of some egocentric conception,
We are now haunted by the spectre of depression,
While we boast of tremendous progress,
Our people are deprived of basic amenities,
While the world zooms into another century,
Mediocrity remains the forte of our society,
While we wallow in a painful mire of inefficiency,
We delude ourselves with illusions of competency.

While the ship of state flounders,
In a raging storm of corruption,
Our leaders plead ignorance and innocence,
While we flaunt misconceived notions of maturity,
Our politics is fraught with puerile jealousy,
While our leaders preach morality in public affairs,
Accountability remains a mythical fantasy,
While principled positions are the butt of ridicule,
Integrity seems to be a political liability,
And party loyalty prevails over the national wellbeing.

While the righteous clamour for morality,
We languish in a den on iniquity,
While we display callous disregard for traditional values,
Our social and cultural foundations disintegrate,
While we strive to perfect our arrogance,
Our humane instincts have been jettisoned into oblivion,
While the oppressed pleads for social justice,
Prejudice and inequity flourish with impunity,
And the innocent suffers while the wicked roams freely.


While innumerable ills plague our society,
Our bards and philosophers complain intrepidly,
Yet we go by placidly, and complacently
With fanciful notions, and hope,
That those ills will soon dissipate,
And the utopia of which we dream,
While escaping on our many flights of fantasy,
Will miraculously materialize,
Without any conscious exercise of our faculties.


Mario Edwards
© 1985