We had a dream our lives would be…

So different from this hell we’re living

So different now from what it seemed,

Now…

Life…

Has killed

The dream…

We dreamed…

 

The dream to some it seemed started in ’94 as lines of voters snaked around fields

Filled with the anxious anticipation of first-time voters eager to claim their rich inheritance

Before the years were peeled back to reveal that perhaps the vote was all they got

Although most were too busy reeling from the smell of the faeces in their living spaces to notice

This raw deal, concealed in a handshake and a rugby world cup winners jersey

If only there had been some nearby statue for them to empty their buckets on

To in some minor way help grant them a sense of private security

 

Meanwhile the slacktivists were logged on in full force

“Can’t we just stop making everything about colour?”

We said as we peeked behind the multi-hued curtain

That boldly declared itself the Rainbow Nation

And discovered that the old man winding the crank

Had completely disappeared from his post

Only to be found later

Tired and worn out from

Doing back-stroking laps across his firepool

 

Upon closer inspection it was revealed that the crank was completely devoid of most of our fingerprints too!

 

But as Nero rummaged through his empirical new clothes

Searching for his fiddle

As yet another wisp of black smoke

Slowly forged its path towards the stars

A growing number of us continued in our hopeless quest

To hold back the North Sea

By sticking yet another finger in the next hole to spring a leak

While waiting upon those we hoped would realise the entire

Wall was in disrepair and in need of much reconstruction.

 

The drip, drip, dripping in our ears

Reminding us that while the dream is not dead

So the rainbow remains very much elusive

With not enough people giving enough of a dam

To ensure that there is enough water

Food, resources, opportunity and good will for all.

The rich get richer and the poor get excuses.

 

But this chapter is not yet done

As a new year calls our attention away from the present menace

Promising a new hope

And a different kind of force to be awakened

If we could all just put down our knives and swords

And cast aside our jagged little words

Make the supreme effort to take a step towards

To seek to know

To listen and to really hear

Even perhaps to begin to understand

In some small way

Then maybe just maybe…

 

2018 could prove to be the year

Where Rose finally skooches over

To prove what we have always known

That there was always enough room for Jack on that door

And a titanic mistake could have been prevented

Enough for everyman’s need

But not for our greed

The final bubble that needs to break

To bless the reign down in Africa

 

Can we learn this coming year

That sticks in a bundle are unbreakable

That me, my and mine may go hastily

While we, our and yours will take us all way further down the path

Of discovering our own selves

Through the bonded glue of community

Could it be that a child is not the only one a village can raise?

 

Maybe we can turn to

The more blatant beautiful way of

Letting everything be about colours

Blended and intermingling

Radiant and euphoric

Celebrating the differences we have often used to suppress and divide

While the monochromed blinkered existence is

Banished to the corner

To wallow in its own ineffectiveness

 

We had a dream our lives would be…

So different from this hell we’re living

So different now from what it seemed,

But hope

Has fuelled

The dream…

We dreamed…

 

[with a nod to Neil Diamond And Herbert Kretzmer who penned the original ‘I dreamed a dream’ lyrics that i adapted for the opening and closing stanza]

[To read my Poem “Will i see you?”, click here]