The Numbers Of Us Lament /World Population Who Wonders Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

The numbers of us grow
The wail of a newborn
Fills the air right now
Yet still we wonder why
Some of the people hungry
Some of the people exiled
Some of the many rejected
In this world we call our own.

You see the moon and ask
How many moons have I seen?
You are on a flimsy boat
Mediterranean waters licking it
It tilts dangerously and you ask
Is this the time when I will perish
Life is counted in the fingers of the hand.

The waves rise and kiss the side
They climb in and splash you once
You know the next one will do it
You count them as they get closer
This is not like the thunder of the bomb
You survived that and now this
This turning, splashing and being thrown.


When the boat tilts all are thrown asunder
The baby is lost first just as the one year old
The man stays afloat for some time.
The woman wails, 'my baby' and disappears
Only her scarf can be seen
Her flailing limbs will not carry her far
Everything disappears and then the stillness
The ocean has eaten them all.

The bombs were thrown at others
Some were worn on bodies with anger
They blasted airports and dance halls
In big towns and small.
Was this to prove we can be destructive?
Was it to echo back life at itself?

Our numbers mill around the world scarred
By the news of the limbs that flew away
Never to be recovered for they were pulp.
The news is chewing us inside
We are looking to the one love
The word that stands alone and quiet
Asking where it was when it all started.

We will heal our world of wars
The very world we love and live in
What are we when our rulers are gone?
Ask people who land in exiled lands
There is a voting day next door.
Why are you here when we have no jobs?
Ask residents of countries afar
They give you a look that is a story
You wonder how far back we can go
If we can claim the earth for ourselves
And move around with no borders as it was
Before people knew to box themselves up
And not give a hand to a stranger
Without thinking they will take all.

We have grown in numbers
We have taken over the wind
Polluted it and sniffed it out.
We have changed the waters in the oceans
By crossing them and dumping in them
We live a people with a trail
We have to survive on this planet
There is a new baby in your tummy
Welcome to our world little one
One more baby lands in you world of ours.
The numbers never stop growing
Welcome World Population Day