africa
compassion is not a virtue but a vice
just as nice isn't pleasant but an amalgam of
neat and precise
and they exactly make a perfect pair
for the empathic to feel superior
oh I know I am heartless
for daring to say
that I am greatly saddened
by the knowledge
most african university graduates
dream of working for an NGO
or being an emigre
but it's nice to have cut flowers
in every retail outlet
and those out of season fruit and veg
they simply will not grow themselves
and it is of vital import
to pile them high on gaping shelves
and then there's all the minerals
what must be gathered in
uranium is valuable
as is bauxite and tin
and those dark chaps in the way
they must at once go away
they cannot be allowed to stay
of course it helps those in control
of the mining rights and oil holes
own the compassion tap
for the NGOs to spout some crap
of how you are a racist knave
because you refuse to behave
and object to the plan
of evacuate and drown
but mind and never mention
- don't send blankets just send cash -
haitian hotels of grand dimension
for on the beaches tourists splash
while up the mountain out of sight
another child drowns in shite
as cholera that disease unkind
clears a path for the clinton's mine
oh yes the despots hold compassion
as the greatest of all virtues
without it they could not be stashing
the money nicely taken
from empaths like you
