Barred



THREE WORD WEDNESDAY

http://www.threewordwednesday.com/

'silence, object, educate'

BARRED

It may be that I am brain-washed and I just don't know the facts;

It may be that I'm talking through my hat!

I'm very, very sceptical of all that's in the press,

And all the bit-sized news that's often chat.

But I hear of women suffering in silence, every day,

With the Taliban denying them their rights,

And, even if not all of it is absolutely true,

My heart aches at the thought of all such slights.

To treat a woman as an object is wicked and obscene;

Not to educate the girls is bigotry!

So even if its only half, or only a quarter true,

I'm sickened by this form of tyranny.

My fear is that our forces will abandon them too soon,

The women and the girls who wear the veil.

Of course, we want our soldiers to come, quickly, home again,

But if the women lose the world will fail.

*

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ACROSTIC ELEGY

Musical to the very enth degree!

Idolised by the people of his age.

Charismatic? Very certainly!

His albums were, undoubtedly, the rage!

As a child he suffered and it left him scarred.

Each beating somehow seared upon his brain.

Love came, but much of it was marred

*

Joy never lingered quite as long as pain.

Although we saw him moon-walk in our dreams

Cold morning showed a strangely mask-like face.

Kindness and sweetness, nothing more, it seems,

Soon ended in the dock and deep disgrace.

Only his picture for us to recall

Now that the music's ended for us all.

*