Glass
A visit by the Pope to families in two small shacks of wood and corrugated iron occupied by 10 and 14 people respectively in a squalid, muddy back alley without sewage was cancelled at the last minute for unexplained security reasons. UPI/Reuter
That world will come like a thief
and steal all we possess
Poor and naked, we will be transparent as glass
that both cuts and reflects. Karol Wojtyla
Nothing else was cancelled
The glittering ceremony
in the Presidential palace
The carefully orchestrated
motorcade across the city
Nothing else was cancelled
The solemn meeting
with the august Cardinal
The Mass for massess
in the majestic cathedral
Nothing else was cancelled
For neither chandelier
nor stained glass
nor pointed mitre
nor rear-view mirror
can cut and reflect
cut and reflect like
the naked and the poor
And their squalid
back alley shacks
their open latrines
their armies of flies
bugs and cockroaches
the sharply pointed
ribs of their children
will ever pose the greater
threat to the security
of thieves who have stolen
their birthright and
rooted themselves in power
The poor have nothing
to lose but their poverty.
-Cecil Rajendra, Songs for the Unsung
