Oh Africa

The starkness of dry, cracked land,
Starved of water and vegetation,
Forms the background of hungry people too weak to stand,
Staring with fly infested eyes, void of any elation.
Little babies with huge eyes and bloated tummies,
Suckle on barren breasts, too weak to cry.
Mothers quietly rocking deathlike mummies,
Knowing without help they are going to die.
Oh Africa, call to your God for rain,
Beat the drums in loud outrage,
At the drought, disease, poverty and pain,
Let the world become your stage.
*************
I get up and switch off this haunting picture,
Trying to shake it from my mind.
The lump in my throat causing a stricture,
What has become of mankind?