Death in the Afternoon

Death in the Afternoon


There was a poor black lady, who lived in a city slum,
got ill and sought help at the local hospital. Tolerantly
she waited, but because she was poor and also quiet,
was ignored till she fell off her chair and in agony died.
Guards who saw her, thought she was asleep or drunk,
even in death she was disregarded till her body began
to reek in the hot air of despair and decay. Don’t blame
badly paid staff, for them too the American dream is
nightmare, a pay packet away from hunger, prisoners
of a capitalist system where the winner takes all, live
long, feeding on the corpses of the poor. Yet, the guard
and the orderly hope that someday they will be rich too.
The dream will only come true if they united fight and
win. Banal ignorance makes the unequal system survive.