To The Sleepers Poem by Denys E. W. Jones

While Amazonia burns,
And polar ice-caps melt,
Or flood defences burst,
You sleep, you sleep.

While staff are hired and fired,
Short-term contracts expire,
And harsh cuts are required,
You sleep, you sleep.

While work or classmates demonstrate,
By packing squares and thronging streets,
Or circulating leaflets, and making rousing speech,
You sleep, you sleep.

“Come join us, play your part,
Help make our numbers swell.”
We urge, exhort, entreat.
You hear us not, you sleep.

Some day you shall wake up to find
That while you’ve slept and sweet dreams dreamt,
Events have passed you by –
The deck’s re-shuffled, chairs re-arranged,
And precious rights been snatched away.

So one more time we say: “Awake!
Come off the fence, for Heaven’s sake.
Commit yourselves, before ‘t’s too late.”
But still you sleep…

31/10/08