Adrian Wait (A Long while ago / England)

So many hidden stories
Forgotten and ignored
Poverty absorbs life
Hope bleeds gradually
Make do, and mend
Smile and pretend
Slowly, gradually
Visible to invisible
With unchanging smile
Stranger to self
And stranger we deny
As poverty silences
In coldness we comply
Indifference cuts the deepest
Statistics used to deny
Personhood and dignity
Fade, Person to ghost
Dying is easy
It’s living that’s hard
False prophets abound
Hope bleeds gradually
Selling isms by the pound
Disengaged they take the cudgel
Pronounce their humble acts
Do we listen to the stories?
Do we listen to the facts?
Wise in our own eyes
Objective in indifference
Passing by on the other side
So many hidden stories
Forgotten and ignored
Poverty absorbs, denies
Hidden by statistics
Hope bleeds gradually
Make do, and mend
Smile and pretend
Slowly, gradually
Visible to invisible
Christ knows our story
Tell me that it’s true
He bore it on the Cross
We are not alone
Nothing in love is lost
I hope that this is true
Hope bleeds gradually
Whilst Poverty absorbs
Christ knows.