What if there was no               divide?

by Jane Burn

What if life, for so many of us          wasn’t a chasm?
You only have a basic understanding.     It’s complex –
not quite as simple as that.             What would the famished
do with money, after all?               They’d only spend it.
Yes. On food/rent/bills/clothes/           Pay back those loans
and learn what it means to be free.   Imagine the weight of worry
sloughed, the heavy skin of debt       gone. Imagine not being
afraid of the post, your card never       being declined at the till.
A holiday, bus fare, un-cracked glass.       Imagine a shared and fair
level peg of healthcare/education.         Imagine enough.
What are all those billion billions for?     I sat and watched
the plush and pearly claim of dawn      and rich or poor,
I saw it with the same eyes.        Perhaps I even saw it more,
for these are the only jewels I own.      I have an Eden already,
I think, at times like these. I have          a 21^st century dream
of a place where the sun          always rises in colours of hope –
where the dusk does not lower     its flames upon lack and want.
In my envisioning, there is           a tax of kindness and you
must pay it forward. You make      each other happy, simple as.
Everyone has a garden –         nature is greeted like a best friend
and there are no better parts,         no worser parts, no gated havens
where you fool yourself out      of the world, shuck responsibility
like dew from a wet pelt.         No postcode lottery schools,     
no forgotten corners of decay.     Children are not pared thin by need,
their small angels are not         an unfortunate consequence of
budget/back-slappy bonuses/       deliberate squandering of the poor.
Their ghosts do not haunt those        hoarded gluts of avaricious cash.
Parks are more important     than shopping malls for this place
has learned the lessons      of our plastic past. Trees are worshipped
for their miracle strength.     People say good morning.
People smile.                It has made such a difference,
now that there are no have     or have-nots. Envy and greed
are burdens that we            happily shed. Equality
is our favourite song.       Above the great entrance arch to this
brave new world,                 two words are carved and kept
on a great crown of honest stone.        Welcome, Everyone.

This was one of a number of brilliant poems contributed by a number of poets towards the centenary celebrations of the Communist Party of Britain, see here for the downloadable pdf.