by Julia Glenday
I want just this
Justice
Just ice in my coke
Funny how fast it melts
In sugar and bubbles so deceiving
When the sweet tooth takes over
Putting the passingly pleasing
Taste of personal possession
Before reason
The reason of shared feeling
I want just this
Justice
Just icing on my cake
Funny the flavoring is fake
Factory baked and placed in a plastic
Trucked in and stacked on shiny shop shelves
See how well packaged sugar sells
Is there space for superheroes
Among supermarket aisles?
Ankles anchored in rubbish, how can we save the day
When we must wade through wave of waste to fly
I want just this
Justice
Just eyes on me in my designer tee
Medium, made in China, wash separately
Never been to China, but the t-shirt has
Sewn by machines, tiny stitches, tiny hands, child’s hands Working to eat, eating to work, not play, one day, they may Have saved enough money to buy a Japanese TV On which they are likely to see Soap stars wearing t-shirts like me Children’s lives bought cheaply Must we import injustice as if We didn’t have enough at home?
I want just this
Justice
Just ice for my bling
Funny how a shiny diamond ring
Costs an arm and a leg
of a boy in Sierra Leone
And a 4×4 to cruise
Burns enough petrol to produce cyclone on its own
What I choose to buy can change the color of the sky
Raise the sea to wet my feet in my house on the hill
And dye rivers blood red
I want just this
Justice
Just ice in my gin and tonic
Capitals’ colonialism is chronic
We buy what they sell, they sell what we’ll buy
With cotton candy stuffed in our ears so deep
To deafen those ears to empathy
Amid fears of loss in a free market
That can enslave to save,
A few cents
Makes no sense
In ‘free’ market that’s so sweet and so ethically expensive,
A credit card is as fun and easy to use as a loaded gun
I want just this
Justice
Just ice in my coke
It’s a choice, not a joke
Money is your voice, so speak wisely, speak well
I want just this
Justice
Just ice in my…. I’ll have a glass of water please