This is my new poem, entitled (for the moment) 'Children of the World'

I’d like to ask for a moment of your time

To talk about an unsolved global crime.

I’m not talking about climate change or recession,

Or ongoing Middle Eastern political aggression.

This is the story of every indebted African nation,

One hundred million children without basic education.

A continent that hopes to one day be free

Of vast debts, crime and bureaucracy.

I am the child soldier of Sierra Leone,

Orphaned, abused, angry and alone.

Patrolling the streets at twelve years old,

Carrying a rifle I can barely hold.

Brothers and sisters taken at night,

Forced into slave labour or vanish outright.

We are the children of Sudan’s indignation,

Thrown into ditches, dying of starvation.

Waiting for a vaccine that will never come,

Helplessly to death I slowly succumb.  

Every five seconds, an African child dies.

How can a life mean so little?