The world is in trouble
exclaims a cricket commentator
perchance quite unaware
of the portent of his statement

(that bling-bling assemblage
of West Indian male-cricketers
were inexplicably routing
a World XI in a charity match)

The world is in trouble
a Refugee Food Festival
happens in Cape Town
where enshacked children
die by fire

(and there is ritual flooding in
a water-scarce and drought-stricken
junk-status ridden country where
politicians have the luxury of wrangling)

The world is in trouble
(women and children first)
SA’s Child Protection Week
now done like we have to
protect children from ourselves

(women and the girl-child
come much later in Nov-December
with 16 Days of Activism
when the besuited folks grandstand
and solicit their pound of flesh)

The world is in trouble
a whale dies in Thai waters
vomiting plastic inside of it
(8 kilogrammes there are)

The world is in trouble
and it is not just
at cricket

The “West Indies” and the World XI galacticos play out a good-natured Hurricane Relief fund-raiser at Lords, Friday past.

Michelle Constant’s Sunday morning SAFM radio show (June 3 2018) is the source of the Refugee Food Festival, she grappling with the terms “refugee” / “migrant”. The whale’s death was reported on the 9am SAFM news bulletin.