Stand Up Poem by Peter Swan

Why do politicians make ordinary
people fight for their false ideologies?
Oblivious to the pain and horror.
Senses deadend by sound bites and soft focus.

Screw their presidential testosterone
parading itself as humanities saviour,
while behind the scenes sly smiles
exchange money for weapons.

The pointlessness of endless summits,
attended by the worlds wealthiest nations.
5 star Hotels,5 course meals,
and in the 5 minutes passed
5000 babies are born dead. Who cares?

Terrorists kill for a slice of primetime,
same story different country.
Iraq, Israel, Palestine, America.
Excused by pulpit mercenaries,
devoid of spirituality using God as a gun,
in which to fire there anger.

I would shout but my voice is small,
I am one person in five billion,
having to watch a handfull of people
devastate my world, in the name of greed.
I feel so angry and frustrated,
I cry buckets in the night.
Surely we can skip a mission to mars
hold fire for a year on nuclear proliferation,
re-seed the fields of drought wraught on nations.

Maybe globally we should strike for nothing
Down tools for a day and say 'I will not work! '
Can you hear the sounds of the branded machines
grinding to a halt..
Maybe then they'll listen.
And we can take back control of this planet.
And shape it the way we want it.....