Writers view

TAX COLLECTORS

And so they came,

An armed policeman, an armed home guard

An army of collectors, and moon-faced auditors

Whose duty it was to fill their coffers.

And so they came,

One day before starvation death found us.

We spied them from the hills,

And naked ran to hide in our slums

Where we thought they would never find us

But they found us always, flashed us out like sewer rats

And with their cold hearts lined us up,

To pay homage to their leadership,

To their peace, love and unity,

And to die for national development.

And so they came.

An so they came,

One day before starvation death found us.

Thinking we had nothing more to fear,

For they had taken everything we held dear,

Poor fools did not shed a tear.

But they too were older and wiser.

They gave purgatives to babies and,

While we aghast, aghast watched,

They collected every cent the mothers,

In desperation, had hid in their babies’s mouth.

“ONE DAY SOMETIME”

Song from the crypt