I never thought I’d live to see
Widespread food-banks in this country.
Where people who can’t afford to eat
Can receive enough for them to beat
Off starvation for another week
And where daily many more have to seek
Help because they have no money
In this land of milk and honey.
And more and more of these folk
Are not those of the standing joke
You know the unemployed and pretend “ill”
No, more frequently those seeking help will
Be working full time for lousy pay
Which always runs out before the next payday
So now they’re forced to seek charity
To be able to keep the electricity
And the gas with which to cook
The free food which has got them off the hook,
Which will only last about a week
Before once more they’re forced to seek
Another hand-out from which to survive
Without it how will they stay alive?
Now contrast their lot with that of those
Faceless men and women who rose
To the prime positions in the corporations
Which are in business to blackmail nations,
Who have just hiked up prices by over ten per-cent
Whilst millions struggle to pay the rent.
They are given millions of pounds for what they do
You know ripping off the lot of you,
And no politician has any intention
Of raising the issue they’d rather not mention
Because the money which goes in the pot
To pay to run the parties amounts to a lot.
And then of course it would be a pity
To jeopardise that place on the board or in the city
Simply in order for them to do
What we thought we elected them to
Which is to do things which benefit all
Not simply line the pockets of a small
Minority of the extremely rich who
For the last thirty or so years have proceeded to
Asset strip our land in such a way
They never have to wait for their pay
They won’t invest where they have to wait
They want quick returns on a plate
Everything is done for their short term gain
No matter how much misery and pain
Is inflicted on the people of the land
This was not accidental, this was planned.
Tom Higgins
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem