Love Shared At the Bottom of the Pyramid

Open hearts to victims of neglect In communities immunized from kindness Hardened by design to the core to select The affluent whose blindness and fondness for coldness and heartlessness Shunt aside concerns of the bottom of the pyramid Whose human worth they measure in dollars and pounds Stashed in Swiss bank vaults and coffers amid Abject poverty that makes the rounds and plea sounds on clay grounds On which mud and pole huts teeming with bed bugs Vacillate as strong winds at high velocity blow In tandem with hailstorms whose ferocity tugs Thatch roofs and cereal bans asunder when hit below The survival belt when victims with neither voice nor choice Cringe, gnashing teeth, shivering under threadbare blankets As distended stomachs yawn and groan wishing Joyce Could spare a coin from her meager security guard pay pockets That hardly kept her soul and body together, dreading the shylock’s knock On her door demanding Joyce settles a thousand Kwacha Borrowed at usury interest rates on the chime of ten o’clock To pay school fees for her fatherless urchins whose diet culture Long forgot the taste and smell of beef last eaten At Christmas when a Good Samaritan brought them morsel of offals Cooked outside on a firewood stove, weather beaten Which despite having seen better days played essential culinary roles In feeding emaciated mouths Pumping stomachs with green vegetables In old family members' memories whose worship for simple truths Ensured men, women and children prayed before eating meals on wooden tables Where despite tiny quantities for which they scrambled Lacked no wealth of compassion and affection Shared unstintingly with prayers mumbled In voices full of passion blessed by God’s protection.