One hundred thousand children
Are in care
Where?
Here in the UK
That’s where
100,000
Does that make it clearer?
It’s a shock
It would fill the old Wembley Stadium
That was always the way to visualise
On telly
We enjoy Long Lost Family
That tells us stories
Of babies given up
Of forced adoption
Mothers left bereft
We feel so sorry for the harshness of those days
But look at us!
A hundred thousand children
The break up of relationships
The loss of family life
Domestic violence
Mental breakdown
And our old friend
Poverty
What can I do?
I’ll go and read a man who knows the score
Lemn Sissay that Ethiopian Lancashire lad
He can tell me more
Brian Fahy
2 November 2021
Erris Poetry 