The Scream!

Too long have we suffered tyrannies of powerful people,

Engaged with them in their enterprise of human deceit,

Rarely have we asked this life to be indexed, better organised,

We fell in love, we forgot, we ignored what is important to us.

We believed in love but love never gave us a second chance,

One chance too many, life seemed to whisper in our ear,

We saw our true love disappear in train rides, and crowded airports,

We didn’t read their histories, or, what happened to them next.

We stared at the things we don’t have in store windows,

We postponed the things we wanted to the nearest future,

We didn’t mind the profanities, the insults, written in restrooms,

We forced our habits around hardwork to rest our heads in sleep.

We sleepwalked days chasing corporate targets, but forgot our own,

We lost what we earned in the sweep of cards, a turn of wheel,

We wept our sorrows in doctors’ clinics and intensive units,

When the needle hurt us, we shook up, and screamed in pain.

Like mad we clung to seats in office cubicles and conference rooms,

We said tomorrow will be ours, but tomorrow never arrived,

We dreamed our dreams in theatres and pleasure houses,

We were full of promise, truth be told, those promises never came.

Our ill-health took us by surprise; we never knew we could be sick,

We realised doctors can test and diagnose but never heal,

We wept bitter tears when our hearts were clogged by unhappiness,

We wanted a quick death, but it lingered from drugs to emergency, back to emergency.