by Daniel Agyei

One year after the Grenfell Tower fire, 18-year old poet Daniel Agyei takes us through the callous city of London.

On Grenfell

The burning tower of Grenfell

made me think it was the death knell

for the status quo they constantly try to sell

as change in this arid age

Yet cowardly complacency prevails

They refuse to turn the page

and all hope seems to fail

As we’re confined to this open cage

Can you not still hear their wails?

Now is the time for rage; not pity

For the plight of the poor in this cruel city!

Out of sight….

……without any light….

In the cold of night…

O how wrong I was to long

for things to be any different!

Why do all seem indifferent

and unwilling to fight?

This Cold Callous City

This cold callous city

with its dearth of humanity

Drives me daily to insanity

This cold callous city of commerce

Where what’s blatantly perverse

Is deceptively spun as the reverse:

The fictitious shenanigans of finance

Condemns this city’s children to the cold

as the slow unfolding of crisis doth unfold

And the outsiders suffer in silence….

All This Decadence

All this decadence

Makes no sense

They claim to be for our betterment

Yet no one can pay their rent

Everyone is restricted

No money: no freedom

Many are close to being evicted

Work is utter serfdom

With the lack of wealth

There goes our health

Filth and squalor pervasive in the East Ends

No one does a thing to make amends

For all the tension and dearth of dignity

Corroding our humanity

All this decadence

Makes no sense

Forsaken people on street

Begging at my feet

Despair at being left behind

Makes some think to rewind

Back to a halcyon age

Where they weren’t in this cage

Forsaken and forgotten.

The system smells really rotten

Nothing is okay

With all the decay.

I hope for that day

When comes another Che

And hope shines its glorious ray