Break Out [rev] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Every time I read the newspaper, I cry, it's become
so bad I dare not open Sunday's papers for fear of
spending the week wearing sackcloth - the cynical
realists predict Zuma will destroy our economy, in
Venezuela the economy is already destroyed and
in Zimbabwe Mugabe does as he pleases - so his
people stream into South Africa to escape poverty
& persecution. Tho a positive guru says we cannot

Alleviate suffering in sharing another's pain, I don't
know what else can - how do we lead happy lives
knowing the world's about to end in a big explosion
if the fate of the poor isn't addressed: I know Zuma
& Mugabe are blind leaders without understanding -
but why's it impossible to detain them in an asylum
for criminally insane before they destroy everything,
leaving the scorched earth to worm and blight -

Why do the little people, poorest fugitives and the
uneducated need suffer while our leaders gorge
themselves on wealth that could've fed starving
people for a month; & why must Africa's beautiful
continent be spoiled by criminal tycoons, why can't
it break out of the slavery imposed, initially by the
criminally insane Arabs, and now by African tribes
as the tyrants themselves?