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My Poem ‘Free the world’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Break all the chains;
smash all the tanks;
free all the animals
and let them live in a world
without the threat of pain
and forced-incarceration,
and let them be what they were born to be
with the rest of their species,
and let them do what they feel like doing,
and not what someone with £ or $ signs in their eyes
expects and wants them to do.

Break down all the walls;
tear down all the fences;
end the obsession of the powerful
to feel important through control of the few;
let the world see what lies in the hearts
of the cruel, and capture their crimes
in black and white with words,
or through the aperture of camera lenses.

End the slavery of every living and feeling thing;
let the whales and the dolphins
swim in the ocean from where we all came from;
let the ring-leaders of fear be held accountable
for their sins, and stop the extinction
of life for no good reason.

Prison is prison;
if you commit a crime, you pay the price;
but what could a defenseless animal have done
to suddenly find itself unable to do
what it was born to do, and what everything deserves:
to live a normal and free life?

Some people can be so closed-minded;
some people who want to see the face of true cruelty
need only look in a mirror;
some people are so opportunistically blinded,
and all they care about is money,
that they don’t see the river of blood running behind them
that without them and what they have done
would not be there.

I care about life so much;
I don’t want the children of tomorrow
to grow up seeing, thinking, believing
that being a bully and being the one
who holds power over someone less strong
is in any way a means to feeling important or tough.
I want everyone and everything on Earth
to run free, swim free, break free,
climb high, dive deep,
and not live in distress, nor in fear
of being scared, scarred, or even killed.
I want life to be lived.
I want to help free the world.

My Poem ‘Don’t stay silent’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Every day, someone is abused by someone else;
every hour, someone is subjected
to a storm of words that cut like a knife;
every minute, someone – a child, a man,
or even just a woman walking her dog –
is made to feel as if they are just a piece of meat,
a punching bag, and attacked like a wild animal,
and beaten both verbally and physically,
and looked upon as someone who is helpless,
and THIS MUST STOP! THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN!
Everyone who just wants to live their life
and walk through life unimpeded and unscarred,
deserves to have that god-given freedom and rite.

I am disgusted to hear that son’s
who have not been taught how to respect a woman,
or any human being, are terrorizing women of all ages
and giving them nightmares of fear;
I am at a loss to understand
what gives anybody the rite to make someone
burst into tears;
I cannot believe that in this day and age
abuse is still happening behind closed doors,
as well as in broad-daylight.

Rape, or even the threat of rape, is intolerable;
abusers in all shapes and forms
must be held accountable;
we must all do all that we can
to educate children to respect
their fellow man and woman;
and our animals also need protecting –
we must all do all that we can
to stop all despicable acts of abuse of every kind,
and it should be one of society’s most important pledges.

People’s stories of abuse deserve to be told
and brought into the light,
and they should not be quietened.
Abuse needs to be spoken about and eradicated,
and the victims of abuse,
for the sake of those who are too afraid to speak out,
must not continue to stay silent.