POETRY OF DEFIANCE

Where Are You Going, Young Lad?

To all the young men and women struggling to make a mark on the sketchboard of life

Innocent young lad Where are you going With your pants hung low And arse cheek all showing?

To march, you say Defying a system That has allowed poverty to reign With me as the victim

Fight for my right To know and to dream To see manifest Without having to scream

Or fight and struggle Begging crumbs from the bowl Of the rich and the heartless Now my story’ll be told

My brothers, all shackled Imprisoned for what Trying to get by in This land of the polyglot

They speak all the language And love letting us hear They are for us and by us But still feeding despair

So lady don’t ask me Whither I roam I am going to fight And am not coming back home.

© I, Trudie Palmer One Love

I was sitting in my garden watching a young man walk down the street. He was going to the village shop to buy breakfast — bread and an energy drink. I looked at him and saw his goodness and potential. He looked at me and perhaps saw the representation of a system that was not helping him to advance in life. If I could have only spoken to him, I would have told him that he has all that he needed to grow and to thrive — it all lies within.