Kabwe ZAMBIA

In all of Africa and elsewhere
A more toxic place there is none where
Lead and zinc were mined away
And from the tailings people pay
Generations of children took
Black mountain’s slag
It kind of shook
Their very being in every way
For those that in the dust did play
As children their bodies they became
Wrecked for neurotoxins claim

Resentment the severity
Of children as sick as they can be
Its intolerable to see a child
Its innocence really defiled
By the churlish corporations who
Show no mercy and just do
Their vile direction night and day
A curse to which all comers pay

Heartlessness ruthlessness callously they
Remorselessly dragged out this lead to decay
These metals are heavy and chaotically do
Enter the brain to damage and screw
On into emotions and ability
To learn and to turn and to yearn
And be free
To atone and desire and ofcourse to create
And leave a vast chasm to humiliate

Many would die long before they
Blindness and paralysis took them away
Lead is insidious causing such pain
Children were hidden away
They the bane
Of their frantic parents
And still to this day
The government is taking the
Old earth away

The clean up is happening
But once again
children are victims
Condemned without gain
No compensation for a lifetime thats lost
Nobody willing to stomp up the cost
Arrogance caused this, corruption did too
The transgression of ignorance
It trickles through

Still the most toxic of places around
By mining for profit they destroyed the ground
And the nightmare was born
All the anguish became
Long suffering martyr ‘s
With no one to blame