Children Living Underground

[Irene]

Decided my index of poems is a little sad!!

I wrote this poem after a discussion with a family group who had lost a young daughter to a car accident. We were discussing the subject of the increasing death toll of young teens/adults on our roads, and what could be done about it. The girls' cousin referred to these children as 'Children Living Underground', and suggested I might write a poem to raise awareness. My first thought was "No way, I'm not going there!!" But on the long drive home the next day, the phrase kept going through my head, and this was what was written by the time I got home. I always hope it will encourage people to discuss and try to find solutions to the high death toll.


Children Living Underground
© Irene Conner 28/01/08

Children living underground – reflections of our time -
banished to this hinterland in absence of a crime.
Destiny? A lonely life, no family to hold;
youthful teens forever young who’ll never now grow old.

Children living underground – the affluent and poor.
Can we stop this exodus through life’s revolving door?
Money cannot keep them safe, our love is not enough.
Are there answers waiting here? Should we be getting tough?

Children living underground – are they not being taught
how to drive with safety, or inherent dangers fraught?
Power that is dangerous – why place it in their hand?
Do we give them licences before they understand?

Children living underground, invincible and strong
never have a second chance to tell us they were wrong.
Can we get the message through they’d want to leave behind?
Can we program safety for the young to bear in mind?

Children living underground should be our future nation,
looking to their future filled with pride and motivation;
looking to fulfil their hopes, to realise their dreams -
not for them this life cut short ‘midst broken hearted screams.

Children living underground – in cemet’ries they’re found,
country or the city – they are crying with no sound,
begging us for answers as we try to win the war,
begging us to stem the flow through that revolving door.

Children living underground – we cannot let them down -
listen to them calling us from every country town,
calling from the city. ‘Child, we hear your final call –
we will find the answers ‘ere too many others fall.’

[Dave Smith]

Irene I remember you presenting this poem one night at our state muster in Perth, I thought then that it was meaning full and to the point and I still think the same, having lost grandchildren to road accidents I hope your message gets through.

Thanks for posting it.

Dave.

[Neville Briggs]

It's an unusual approach to the subject Irene. I'll have to read it a few times and give some thought.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Could see this done as a series of road safety ads presented in sequence over a nights TV viewing with suitable ghoulish presentation that the young kids seem to go for these days, like that vampire show - Twilight. It just might work. Your words are hard hitting, and too the point. The message is clear

Well done Irene

Cheers

Maureen

[Bob Pacey]

Here Here. But getting the message accross will be hard.

Ten foot tall and bullet proof. as we all were at that age.

Bob

[Irene]

Yes Neville - a different approach indeed. When I first told a couple of friends that I had written a poem on this subject, they thought they would need to get the tissues out, but, as I explained, this wasn't written to make someone cry - it was intended to be a bit 'in your face' and somewhat confronting - with the intention of stimulating conversation about the possible solutions to the high death toll. I feel that we are becoming a little too immune to the increasing number of deaths of young people on our roads - unless we are affected personally by it - and, as a society, we need to be taking a good, hard look at what the answers are.
Whether my poem encourages that remains to be seen, but hopefully it does something.

Thanks Dave, Maureen and Bob - not sure what the answers are myself, and how we can get it across to our kids, but hopefully we get it right soon!!!

Catchya
Irene

[Neville Briggs]

G'day Irene. I have thought about your poem a lot.

I was taken aback by the line " children living underground ".
I thought at first it referred to homeless children living in sort of cellars or pipes under a city, then of course I realised that the children weren't living at all they were dead and buried.

The repeated phrase has a very tough sort of punch by presenting that seeming contradiction, the children living who are not living, and they are not just underground, they are buried.
The phrase makes a very powerful poetic image for the theme. A very uncomfortable image though it is, which I assume is intended to unnerve the reader.

It would be interesting to see what you could come up with, now that you are more experienced, by making the rest of the lines have the same power of suggestion rather than just spelling out the questions about the situation. Just a thought.

I think it is a subject appropriate for bush poetry. Maybe it should get more attention.