IN THE RED LIGHT ZONE

And when the breasts of the country began to dry

The parody of betterment dwindled in the darkening sky

For the cry of her hungry child had become too idyllic in her swollen ears

And she knew her land had denied her what was rightfully hers

Night by night she prayed she would not dance to this unnerving torture

For if the sun was shining and the rivers still not drying

And even if life imbibed her in a baptism of desperate measure

She swore she would not burn and not kneel down forever.

 

And so by and by as she searched for the truth here and there

Hoping to harvest from a land that had been stripped threadbare

But not the thorns and faceless shadows that had stared at her

For amid the smolders of the country that had once seemed to care

Rose a thick hand of smoke that blinded the eyes of those present

And when a sad and long hunger song shrilled in her ears,

She fooled herself into thinking that she had no feeling of it as yet

For she would wait alone until the dark room became brightly lit.

 

And by day she seemed proud, yet by night she cried

For no disguise would tell why they had to her lied

And still by night she took out her books and missed her sleep

For the wise is he who thinks when yet a fool cries and weeps

Or the one who not only thinks hope or sends a deep prayer

So she looked at her small child and from her cheeks rolled tears

By tomorrow, she told her hungry child, we should all retire

For the spark she had seen had not been from a well-lit fire.

 

But life has its own games and sordid pleasures

Between its twisted names there lies a desperate adventure

And there is no king who has no rule over his kingdom

Or a fool who can deny a whole basket full of wisdom

Only she knew that her life had sizzled to nothing but envy

And that the University Degree would bear her a useless treasure

Because when the time came she had nothing but to remember

After the flaming dream, hopes are the only wisping embers.

 

And so one day as the red sun sank to its fiery dome

The shimmer of the city lights asked where she was from

For she had emerged her beaten body from its sleeping core

And the rich men and their cars were there for her, galore

Because by the blinking streets she would now wait in pain

Earning a life from what the men from her body gained.

And from the streets her survival she would now acquire

Because there is never an ash without its burned out fire...