This Is Third World Speaking.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

the recent footage is shown
while we were eating our usual breakfast of

salted egg, ripe red tomatoes, steamed rice,
hot coffee, and some slices of wheat bread and
homemade cheese,

what we see is an explosion of light, things run away,
black shadows scamper for safety, they do not really know where to go

children are crying, mothers keep shelter,
one human being explodes itself using the most common pharmaceutical drug as explosive,

we are warned about the images, but here, in this town
which is sleepy like the islands,

they just look at these things as mere stories, nothing to talk about,
when i ask the driver, have you heard the news? have you seen it on tv?

and he answers, sir, i have no tv in my house, and there is no
electricity,

the other one, perhaps has tv, and you ask, if he saw the sad news
on tv last night, and he says, Sir, i work hard to earn a living
i have three kids in school and my wife has no work,

this is third world, speaking.
and i am acting as mere reporter....without pay.