You have been the daylight shining
you have toyed with the ants through the magnifying glass
you have been on the backs of the workers in the fields
     you have watched them sweat and toil
with you they've counted off their days

you are the fluorescent light for the students
you watch their lives overridden
     to only flicker down upon them
and they stare at you, pencils tapping
     at your tireless lectures
     the triumphs you declare

and you will be the cities' broken neon light
     you will watch the youth of the harlots dying
     the fatherless, inconsolable
the children starving on the street,
     you will flicker still and tacit
     callous to their prayer