I find writing poetry is a good way of dealing with things that amuse me, get me thinking, or upset me. I grew up in London England but recently London is changing. There have been a spate of shootings involving youngsters and one in particular prompted the following poem. This boy was shot in the stomach in his own living room in an area of London that I used to know well.

I was born in London,

way down south

And it's there I grew up in a drafty old house.

We had fun

On those streets

Where I played in my youth

But London today holds a different truth

The kids don't sing,

They're too busy dying

Shooting each other

While their mothers are crying.

Dead at fifteen from a shot in the gut

It shouldn't have happened.

No it shouldn't have, but

What can you expect when the adults feel free

To invade other countries.

Politicians engage in a killing spree

And the children's response is

Why shouldn't we?

The city of London is stained.

The blood of its children

Is falling like rain on the street.

Guilty the adults who teach them it's done

To get what you want at the point of a gun.

How sad that we have a Government who introduced ASBOS for kids hanging around and causing problems, and then shows them how to behave by engaging in an illegal war. Why are our children dying? Because we don't value life.