Stock take

The Strong room is opened.

Hundreds of plastic bins

Full of solid residue

Or perhaps a wet slush.

Each one has on it

With an air of dignity

A bright red sticker.

Everyone must be recorded,

Its gross tare and net weight

And given a number:

Its own distinctive place

In this year’s stock take.

                                                In Rwanda and Zaire

                                                            The refugee camps are full

Of thousands of homeless victims

                                                Of war, of genocide.

They are also counted:

The number of people,

The number of corpses,

The number of cholera victims,

The number of orphaned children

In this year’s stock take.

31^st July 1994, Uxbridge, England.