While Amazonia burns, <br />And polar ice-caps melt, <br />Or flood defences burst, <br />You sleep, you sleep. <br /> <br />While staff are hired and fired, <br />Short-term contracts expire, <br />And harsh cuts are required, <br />You sleep, you sleep. <br /> <br />While work or classmates demonstrate, <br />By packing squares and thronging streets, <br />Or circulating leaflets, and making rousing speech, <br />You sleep, you sleep. <br /> <br />“Come join us, play your part, <br />Help make our numbers swell.” <br />We urge, exhort, entreat. <br />You hear us not, you sleep. <br /> <br />Some day you shall wake up to find <br />That while you’ve slept and sweet dreams dreamt, <br />Events have passed you by – <br />The deck’s re-shuffled, chairs re-arranged, <br />And precious rights been snatched away. <br /> <br />So one more time we say: “Awake! <br />Come off the fence, for Heaven’s sake. <br />Commit yourselves, before ‘t’s too late.” <br />But still you sleep… <br /> <br />31/10/08<br /><br />Denys E. W. Jones<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-the-sleepers/
