I wrote this years ago when Bob Geldof, Midge Ure and Co. sang to the world to feed the world. I'm putting it here (37 years later?) because nothing has really changed.
FEED THE WORLD
I watched a TV show about a desert harsh and dry:
A little girl was smiling though some flies were in her eye.
She sat among a massive crowd with some already dead,
and as she smiled the vultures gathered high above her head.
But on this day a Christmas man bent down and asked her name
and pressed into her tiny hand a magic little grain.
Her eyes lit up with pure delight – such magic in her hand!
(She’d not eaten a thing for days; she could not even stand.)
So now, upon this Christmas morn, she ate a magic grain.
Perhaps she’ll live another year. Perhaps she’ll walk again.
. . . . . . . . .
I thought about this program as I hurried down the street
amidst a mass of shoppers desperate for some useless treat.
Beneath the Christmas lights a little figure caught my eye,
sat on a step, her empty hands stretched out to passers-by.
Her cheeks were drawn, her face was pale,
her body skin and bone . . .
We helped to feed the world
Now we must feed a child at home.
FEED THE WORLD
I watched a TV show about a desert harsh and dry:
A little girl was smiling though some flies were in her eye.
She sat among a massive crowd with some already dead,
and as she smiled the vultures gathered high above her head.
But on this day a Christmas man bent down and asked her name
and pressed into her tiny hand a magic little grain.
Her eyes lit up with pure delight – such magic in her hand!
(She’d not eaten a thing for days; she could not even stand.)
So now, upon this Christmas morn, she ate a magic grain.
Perhaps she’ll live another year. Perhaps she’ll walk again.
. . . . . . . . .
I thought about this program as I hurried down the street
amidst a mass of shoppers desperate for some useless treat.
Beneath the Christmas lights a little figure caught my eye,
sat on a step, her empty hands stretched out to passers-by.
Her cheeks were drawn, her face was pale,
her body skin and bone . . .
We helped to feed the world
Now we must feed a child at home.
