Penury In Plenty Poem by Chris Jibero

Mind-boggling figures
Trillions
Billions
Millions
and a few hundreds
flying about recklessly in the air
visible only on the radar of the elite
the gang that controls our commonwealth
huge revenue generated daily
and shared monthly
as a game killed by a pack of lions
but whetting the appetite of the masses
for morsels that never touch their tongues
national cake baked and frittered away
with reckless abandon as though tomorrow won't come
and in mischievous madness
our golden eggs are eaten on corruption highways
and a portion stacked at palatial homes
proceeds of political and civil service banditry
some bathed in dry water tanks
some in deep freezers that know not electricity
yet others stashed abroad
where they are pinched and poached
by fortunate, foreign fingers
gnawing cleverly at our heritage like witches' mouse
feasting on delectable dirty feet
under the cover of pitch-dark night


Money! Money! Money!
money everywhere but in jaundiced circulation
dropping pernicious penury
at the doorpost of the precarious poor
continuously decimated by malicious misery
the companion of humiliating and humbling hunger
and noveau diseases thrive these days
issues that were traditionally dreadful of dough
are presently emboldened like a cheeky antelope
asking a lame lion to pay up its debt quickly
or be disgraced by flogging publicly
and poverty takes permanent residency
in the shanties of the poor
where the income of tens and units that trickle in
don't make hungry, angry souls rejoice anymore

Abandoned to the fear of unknown tomorrow
because the hitherto treasured little drops of water of yore
has become powerless and despised
scarcely abiding in their occasional visits
because the demand they back up has been made inelastic
by rulers, an unfeeling and blind lot
to the plight of their impoverished and debased
men who revel in too much power
that bestows on them too much wealth
with which the masses are perpetually held down
as stepping-stone and footstools for the elites.
(c) Chris Jibero.






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