I Heard The News Today

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I heard the news today.

An Afghan baby, a girl,

was sold by her parents

to an unaccountable man

so that they could feed

their other children;

a good young man

with bad old teeth,

friendless, penniless, helpless,

and quite out of his mind,

wept in the arms of a man of god

because there was nobody else;

three fathers walked together

side by side

for miles and miles

hoping that the pain of blisters

would become greater than the pain

of losing their daughters

to suicide;

and the two-faced people

of the too big corporation

began to shout their lies

to drown the sound

of a whistle, blowing.

In this dark little room

protected by a roof,

and four walls

and democracy

and love

and good fortune,

none of it touches me,

and all of it does.

Oh, boy.