LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR

38. LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR

 

Love thy neighbour the Word commands

And from that verse I understand

That even with its pomp unfurled  

I'm simply not to love the world

That is far too big a task

Far too cool to wear the mask

May I never play that fraud 

Leave the world to shoulders broad 

 

But who is my neighbour?

You say perplexed

Why, he you meet, this day or next

Any voice that with you pleads

Or plainly shows a greater need

He that’s suffered Fortune's slide 

Abandoned by the bleak roadside

That lonely man who ever sighs 

That child with his unending cries

She who's wracked by drugs and drink

A life poured whole down the sink 

 

Yet our answer to distress?

Call the Police or NHS! 

We’ve paid our taxes with dispassion 

Outsourced all of our compassion  

So now we’re free and can berate

Cry out 'Where was our blessed State?'

But was it not a better cry  

To query first 

Where was I?


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