imprisoned by circumstance,
a child;
abuse, poverty, hunger
the walls,
the blindness of others
the door,
lack of compassion
the lock.
.
while a world away
another prison released
a child murderer,
built a world of perfect anonymity
around his diva demands,
the price, millions.
.
recidivism waited around the corner,
a lifelong companion,
there’s no blindness here
there’s five million pounds
worth of compassion.
.
he killed a child deliberately,
he was a child dispassionately
extinguishing a life;
evil incarnate.
.
the world killed a child today,
what’s our excuse?
..
.
.
I was reading the papers from back home in England, following the story of child murderer Jon Venables, who with his accomplice Robert Thompson abducted, tortured and killed two year old James Bulger in 1993. They were both given new identities, at a cost of millions of pounds, and spent less than ten yeas in prison for their crimes, committed when they were both ten years old.
Jon Venables has just been re-arrested, for what sources are saying is a ‘serious sex crime’.
When I wrote this poem I was thinking about a world that pays millions of pounds to keep the murderers of a two year old child safe from the public at large, and yet ignores the poverty and suffering of millions of other children all over the world. What could that money have been used for?
.
.
Yep Paul, and the beat goes on. At some fucking point in our evolution this will change, but sadly I doubt it will be in our generation or even the next. Thank you for making such an important statement.
As long as the change comes, and the young will surely make that happen. The younger generations always change things the former ones are afraid to change. The young don’t suffer from the same ‘comfort’ the older of us get used to living with. They are always the impetus behind change. We talk, they act.
Hi Paul. You know I am passionate about this topic too. So frustrated with people’s selfishness in not wanting to face the ugliness. It’s just too hard…it seems for some…the policy makers in positions of power with their lunch meetings and cafe late breaks, concocting new ways to save face politically.
Hi Colleen, good to see you again.
My take on things, Colleen, is maybe some or a lot of those policy makers don’t want to do the right thing because they’re already doing the wrong thing; namely abusing kids. Why would a bad judge want sentences to be imposed on those doing the abusing? Look how many doctors, lawyers, policy makers, politicians, policemen get caught in the net when paedophile rings are broken. I think if the people who have been abused or know people who have been abused made the laws there would be no tears shed over a pervert getting the death sentence. Anyone who hurts a child doesn’t deserve the chance at a good life, in my opinion; they have no qualms about destroying a perfectly good and innocent life.
So much doesn’t make sense.
You said it, Jaymie. As long as we say it to those in power too, things may one day get better.