Martin Luther King had a dream,
No more racism was his theme.
Gandhi, "Father of the Nation",
His dream was poverty eradication.

Buddhist monks took a chance,
Against oppression made a stance.
Tanks filled Tiananmen Square,
Students with placards in despair.

Holocaust victims screamed with pain,
Auschwitz ruins still remain.
Hiroshima victims of A-bomb blast,
Children ran naked, faces aghast.

John F. Kennedy in his limo was shot,
Lee Harvey Oswald blamed for the plot.
John Lennon wrote"Give peace a chance",
His peace shattered by a gunman's stance.

Sri Lanka survived the Tsunami flood,
Homes and villages engulfed in mud.
Dafur and Ethiopia ravaged by drought,
Malnutrition and disease removing any doubt.

Poverty and pain over many long years,
But daily we live with the same old fears.
Have we learned nothing from victims tears,
As Armageddon beckons, we ignore wise sears.

(c) John McKay Withey 2009