World Vision Poem by Robert Plese

Ugh, I am hungry!
Look at the flies buzzing
around my head
as it bakes in the summer sun.

Augh, and my mouth is dry!
I thirst for the day these wretched
maggots stop festering around the
sores in my eyes from malnutrition and dehydration.

For less than a dollar a day from the sweat of your back
you can feed me.
For two dollars a day, you can clothe me
and give me the education I will need to live and eat well.

Autonomy and a trade that might enable me to give back.
Thanks to your Jesus man, you gave me hope.
Hope that I can sell my services at a cost.
Hope that I can convince my people of my human worth.

For a dollar a day, you can make me dependent.
Entrusting an anonymous do-gooder,
who commits to my care on flakey financial whims.
Employed by a tyrant
who needs to see proof of my mentee-ship and patronage.

And for about forty dollars a day, why not import me.
Take me under you wing and give me a home.
Let me see your eyes, hear your words
and become ever more like you.

Let me feel your embrace,
go to your church
and believe in your God the way you would want me to.
Let me dance in your footsteps
and see how autonomous you really are? !

For a few more dollars a day,
you can make me your son.
An employee for when you get old.
I can make you proud,
win some competitions,
and secure my employable capital.

For just one vote
you could chase away those who would take from me my human worth.
You could transform your own country,
and encourage my people to work together
rather than for themselves.

For just a vote and your voice,
you could provide structure that is sustainable,
and employ politicians to look after my best intentions.
Instead of making me beg you
and smile just right in the pictures,
I could speak to you like I am actually your equal.

This vote and you're voice could change things for me.
Why not vote for change?
Let's go back to your 'I'm sustainable and you're not' argument.
Do you really want me to be free? ?

Do you really think that if you left me your inheritance money,
I would squander it and not go on abusing my neighbors with 'you owe me' threats like your Jesus book taught me?

I'd make a really nice parrot
if you sponsor me please! ?
I'd even send money like you,
to starving kids asking
'Polly want a cracker? '