On the brink of non-existence

In an existential world

Where life is toil and hardship

With atrocities untold

 

In houses strapped together

With wire and bits of wood

In the middle of the no-where land

Where no one’s understood

 

The children play in sewerage

Along the untamed streets

They muck about as children do

With nothing much to eat

 

The water is from riverbeds

Of stinking bog and grime

The cities watch and shake their heads

In universal time

 

They sit in houses made of glass

The fountains play their song

They couldn’t care or give a damn

For those who don’t belong

 

Liz Horwill (2007)