CLOCKING ON FOR SADNESS

30-10-2006

The extra hour's lie-in yesterday won't stop the annual debate about whether the clocks should really go back in winter. It's claimed that Seasonal Affected Disorderincreases with onset of gloomy winter afternoons.Stirrer poet Brendan Hawthornehas too many other things to be SAD about.

SAD Rap

I am not SAD at having had

another hour to waste on Sunday

I am not SAD at the changing of seasons

or any other trivial reasons

I am not SAD because I can, should I wish

log on to the sounds of Daffodils and Cumberland sausages

the place where I can stop moaning

about the bad press of melatonin

and all this diminishing light

and street lamp midnight

I am SAD because

war, starvation and greed reign supreme

I am SAD because cost is put before need

I am SAD at the surfeit of unrest

I am SAD at the lack of interest

I am SAD at the lack of protest

I am SAD that our blue planet

is a bluer place to live

Our Oceans and rivers are choked with poisons

purely for economic reasons

short term profit and long term implications

I am SAD that our third world is being exploited

by the wasteful, ‘global village' first world

I am SAD for migrating wildlife losing their way

I am SAD that life-saving drugs are kept on a shelf

and economies are fuelled by addiction

I am SAD for the homeless and the orphans

I am SAD at the loss of culture and conversation

I am SAD at the premature loss of innocence

I am SAD at the mistreatment of animals

I am not SAD for myself

there are many others before me

I am not SAD for writing this

Though I am SAD at the changing face

turning the human into the inhuman race

Copyright Brendan Hawthorne 2006
Check out more of Brendan's work at www.poetrywednesbury.co.uk