MAY IT NEVER HAPPEN TO YOU

Things will be very different

when good fortune fades away,

and, when you see their shrunken bellies,

you search for your loved-ones’ bread.

You will be like the newcomer

scavenging at the rubbish dumps

and sleeping under bridges

while bright lights shine above.

You had forgotten

the citizenry of old

that tied famine round its neck

and shackled work to servitude.

You’ll suffer unthinkable privations

to hold down paltry jobs

with excellence and care

that no native worker wants.

We all travel in the same ship

that rises and falls with the tides.

Gold is a vain ambition

for tomorrow it may all be gone.

Yes; may it never happen to you.