Act Your Age

Ours is an age
in which the combined wealth of the world’s
550 billionaires
exceeds that of the
3 billion humans
who constitute the planet’s poorest 50%

Ours is an age
When number crunching means money
and not lives
when giga-mergers and nano-second transnationalisms
mean baked beans are 10 pence more
than we can afford

Ours is an age
where a light shines ever brighter on a small spot
and the rest is left in total darkness
screaming
unseen and unheard
shuddering under our shadow

Ours is an age
where if you stop looking and get used to not seeing
then things will start to disappear
out of sight,
gone out of mind.

Ours is an age
where you can just fly away
on a global voyeur tour
but there is no real plan to get us out of here
no plan to see what living really means.