Ode to Poverty
poetry in progress
i have seen poverty
climb stairs to make
that morning paper
available at the top floor
i have seen poverty
climb stairs to sell that
wrapped farm chicken
quiet and bowed,
in a one star hotel
i have seen poverty light
oil lamp in the dead of night
with the hope to leap from rags
to cosier enclave through
pen and ink, alphabets,
arab numerals, mind spinning algebras,
logarithms, and medical lexicons
i have seen poverty
take men across turbulent seas
oceans, to strange lands
to make money for home
thousands of miles away
i have seen poverty sweats
from dawn till dusk
under the tropical sun
smoothening highways,
coating multi-storey buildings
i have seen poverty carry
a senile Chinese woman on
shoulders up a famous hill resort
she to admire her honeymoon spot
he to put meals on the table
for mom and dad, brothers and sisters
i have seen poverty gulp
men and women in the seas,
throw them helter skelter
in a murderous web of human
trafficking and slavery
i have seen poverty turn
graceful beautiful maidens
into thin, nerve wracking
frames, wrinkles and flesh
[...] Read more
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
Added by Poetry Lover
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