Sonnet Sundays - I am not down with this sickness

 Hello and welcome to Sonnet Sunday - and the end of my first week of blogging! Today I have revamped a poem I wrote just over 8 years ago and which seemed rather appropriate given everything last year threw at us (and, to be honest, is still throwing at us!) 

I am not down with this sickness

It’s time we opened our eyes, friend,

opened them real wide,

and took a look around us

at what the world thinks it can hide:

at the wardrobes of the wealthy

where one rule does not fit all,

and a gun to the head of a black man

is just answering duty’s call;

at the powerless fear of a child

behind their own front door,

or the sickening isolation

of the aged we ignore;

at the politicians gambling

with any life but theirs

and answering a question

quite different from what they hear;

at sickness run amok

because so many refuse to change,

laughing at the obedient

amid the terrible mess they made.

There should be no room for prejudice,

for ignorance and lies;

we should care more for the stranger,

and listen to their cries,

but when all we seek is power

and we can’t stand injured pride,

no amount of deaths

will ever turn the tide.