After the good lunch
With An Adequate Sufficiency
“Enough is plenty”
Was our satisfactory sigh
But there was a time
Poverty was hand patched trousers
Newspaper inside soles of shoes
Sharing one apple to five little mouths
To keep the doctor away
Cold was no coats to wear, even indoors
When ice froze onto the inside of windows
Damp was the black mould on the walls
And the smell of wet clothes that never fully dried
Dark was looking for a coin
To feed a meter that gobbled coins
In exchange for better light
Prayer was for finding change
In an empty purse,
The difference between
fresh bread and something on it
Or maybe just a crust.
Hope was something in short supply
Poverty had little hope for change
Change is what the charities shout
“A home for Everyone”
“An end to Poverty”
“Food for All”
An adequate sufficiency is all we need
Enough is plenty
It’s not enough to have to choose
Between being warm and being fed
It’s not enough to have to choose
Between putting the light on or going to bed
It’s not enough to have to choose
Between washing the clothes or taking a shower
It’s not right to worry about debts rising
Hour after hour, after hour
An adequate sufficiency
No more, but no less –
This is the issue we need to address
Those with more don’t see it.
They haven’t got a clue
How small an Adequate Sufficiency would be
To me or you
Their super-sufficient lives
With us they can’t compare
Yet they are the ones who govern us!
It seems they do not care.
If the wealthy stopped feeding the wealthy
And assuming charities will pick up the slack
And if kindness was the dish of the day
We would all have our dignity back
But while ever we live with the greed of the few
There’ll not be an Adequate Sufficiency for the likes of me and you