Disaffection

 

I spent all my youth in the city,

Caught up in the pounding and pain,

And living full round in its rhythm,

I danced to its raucous refrain.

 

In its concrete and in its confusion,

I found refuge and bitter relief,

The streetlights all shining like diamonds,

With daylight the intruder thief.

 

For this asphalt and asbestos jungle,

Was my fortress and wall gainst the rage,

And though there was no place of safety,

I was held in its bright gilded cage.

 

The darkening backstreets at midnight,

With the sulphur the sweat and the dust,

The rotting wrought iron of the factory,

Regaled in its rubbish and rust.

 

The slums you could smell from a distance,

Though you stood a full half mile away,

The places you never dare go to,

Are all in my long yesterday.

 

Now I look to the tall trees perfection,

As the warm dawn is breaking at last,

And I wonder what kind fate has bought me,

And just how this lot has been cast.

 

Not worthy of this pleasant vision,

Not worthy of comfort and calm,

Not worthy of care and contentment,

Not worthy to be safe from harm.

 

For the riots that trouble our cities,

Have made me review and reflect,

On just who I am and what’s in me,

On reason, regret, and respect.

 

Our villages need not fear violence,

Nor looting or crime in the street,

And he pavements of our little townships,

Are as safe as the grass at our feet.

 

Our youth is not yet disaffected,

They won’t strip and burn out your car,

And the city that once I had lived in,

Is now distant as some fading star.

 

They say poverty is the reason,

But poverty wholly of what,

The poverty born out of anger,

With honour and reason forgot.

 

This poverty stems from the mindset,

When reason and hope slip away,

For the mind like the body needs feeding,

And we mould from the basest of clay

 

The dawn mist has cleared from the hillside,

The vista stretched perfect and bright,

But out there disguised in the city,

Are the children of nightmare and night.