Children picking food at the dump site <br />Scratching overgrown hair full of lice <br />Unclad youngsters playing in the muck <br />No program or drives to keep them tuck, <br />Thoughts torture their souls constantly <br />One difficulty that ensues incessantly: <br />Poverty is here to stay. <br /> <br />Begging at crossroads is not allowed <br />Police enjoy caning them avowed <br />They run, falling, exposing their parts. <br />Strive for survival an intense freaking. <br />Take to robbing and house breaking, <br />Land in jails and are called terrorists: <br />Poverty is here to stay. <br /> <br />Have no education for want of school cost <br />No defense for want of a solicitor provost <br />No identity card for want of official braids <br />No homes as shanties are on illegal lands, <br />Round up and evict them in massive raids <br />While Ministers aptly preach human rights: <br />Poverty is here to stay. <br /> <br />Teen boys and girls enter drug culture <br />As carriers they eye police as vultures. <br />Coke, cannabis, cocaine, Acne and Nice, <br />Deliver them cleverly to become an ace. <br />A living sex toy is next to virtuous vice <br />Rich use them as lifeless abject objects: <br />Poverty is here to stay. <br /> <br />A ten year old says Maoist do not wait <br />Five officers disarmed and tied as bait. <br />Ask a five hundred thousand payment. <br />Government agrees, says for 'upliftment' <br />In three hours it's money or bereavement. <br />Little one says: What will be, will be! <br />Poverty is here to stay.<br /><br />Syed Anwar Yarkhan Jilani<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/poverty-is-here-to-stay/
