Smash and Grab- response from Dean Atta

Poem from the great Dean Atta written on his blog this morning, with permission to post on Urban Bards:

http://deanatta.tumblr.com/post/8727854641/poem-smash-grab

Smash and Grab

It was a blazing hot night in London.

I wasn’t there. I was in Larnaca, Cyprus,

at my second home with my family;

mum, sister and my yiayia and bapou

(that means grandparents in Greek,

a language that I can barely speak).

I try to understand the news in Greek;

most words beyond my comprehension

but those images spoke for themselves.

A murder. A protest. Rioting. Looting. Fires.

A few long distance phone calls and texts

to check my nearest and dearest at home

and to get a clearer understanding

of how this all started and how it might end.

From a distance it looked quite exciting,

masked youths and riot police fighting.

From a distance I didn’t think about houses,

family businesses and innocent passersby.

Having turned off our international roaming,

we knew nothing of plans on BB Messenger

to replicate these riots, to copy cat this chaos,

duplicate the destruction, to loot high streets

across capital and country… From a distance

it just looked like a hot night in London.

Hot tempers flared by unanswered questions.

Violent cries to police silence. Arson and greed

and did I mention greed? Protest impersonators

walking home with flat screens to be mounted

up on their walls like trophies or sold instead.

What a way to disrespect the recently dead.

At that point I felt so sorry for Mark’s family

whose personal peaceful protest was hijacked.

Then further news of Syria and of Somalia

makes Londoners look like spoilt children.

“What do we want?” “Everything!”

“When do we want it?” “Now!”

We have raised these children. We can’t just blame

the parents, social media, the police or politicians.

In a way, I was glad to see our young people realised

their power that hot night, even if only in destruction.

With such inflation on an education what can you expect

but ignorant behaviour from those who cannot afford it?

But my university degree gives me

no better understanding right now.

It’s no wonder no one looted the libraries.

They wanted trainers so they could run

from you and your bullets, made of metal,

rubber and discriminatory legislation.

Forget about future aspirations; not waiting for

2012 to go for gold but a smash and grab relay,

jack the jewellery shop then down to Dixons

so they could watch their own instant replay

in High Definition on wide screen plasma TV.

But why do these children hate a country

that so many would literally die to get to,

seeking asylum and refuge, running

from war and discrimination to us?

Where we ignore and we pretend,

are politically correct and politically inept,

do nothing about anything we can possibly

avoid or sweep under the rug.

As a carpet of crime covers this country,

what’s criminal is the neglect with which

we have raised these children.