Simple and Carefree

Simple and Carefree?
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Grab my hand, let’s go back ten years ago
To glimpse Nigeria across the sea;
Its people caught in flame as pipelines blow-
Life, it was never simple or carefree.

Twenty years brings not much more peace on earth
Nor mercy mild to the poor Afghani;
A Mere break from desolation without mirth-
Life, it was never simple or carefree.

Chance we travel back in time to thirty?
To see a revolution, its debris?

Why, not to 40, Laos and Vietnam?
The ravaging, unfriendly, dropping bombs?

Fifty brings us to King’s mountaintop
Sit-ins, dogs, non-violent pleas;
Oppression that shall never stop-
Life, it was never simple or carefree.

We shouldn’t lose ourselves in fiction glee;
Life means more than simple and carefree.

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