Childhood smiles of joy effaced,
Drum-taut skin, despair encased,
Youthful spark of life erased,
Eyes beyond imploring.
TV commentator cries:
“Third-world excess millions die,
Military regimes deny.”
Camera-frozen orphans stare.
Shop the shrink-wrapped bargain sale,
“Made in China” consumers hail
Economies of global scale;
Children pay the price.
TV pundits analyze
the shift of global enterprise;
Surplus workers cast aside.
Unemployment,
“Made in China.”
Cocaine mother’s withered breast
suckles her infant. A hideous bequest,
innocents bartered in material quest,
Our children desecrated.
Fear free trade where greed succeeded,
Where hungry children go unheeded.
Human values fade, defeated.
Mourn the prey of trade.
