Project Description
Isabel Ros Lopez
“Isabel is a Spanish-British singer songwriter, poet, song -finder and multi-media artist. Born in Australia to Spanish parents, she grew up in Madrid and Malaga. She found her voice as an adolescent, during the dictatorship, and learned to use it to support the diverse struggles of the time. She migrated to the UK in the late 70s, and connected straight away with the women’s movement, and communities of the ‘Otherhood’, especially refugees. Over the years, her bilingual voice has covered the multiple doings of human life, with a passion and commitment to history told by those in search of dialogue, equality in diversity, inclusion and social change.
Isabel is part of the Hispanic-American Women Writers on Memory, who have recently published Wonder-makers: Navigators of the Thames, two anthologies, one of poetry and one of stories. She is also a member of SLAP (Spanish and Latin American Poets and Writers). Her most recent collections are We, La Palabra (The Word) and The Hummingbird Song.”
Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction
Isabel Ros López
Poverty is a weapon
of mass destruction
if people go hungry
when some are overfed
live on the streets
when some are over-homed
the sanctity of human life
it seems
is only sanct for some
when some can spend on a banquet
as much as a village in a month
when children learn no other rule
than the power of a gun
power junkies should get
help on the NHS…
that would be the best
Poverty is a weapon
of mass destruction
communities destroyed
destitute pushed to the void
to fight for bones
or throw stones
to huge tanks
Malnutrition
Exploitation
millions die
before the age of four
millions die
before…
Poverty is a weapon
of mass destruction
the rich protect themselves
against the seething
anger of the poor
with laws
with guns
and more
ultimate power
to mass destroy
take away life
take away joy
Millions depressed
forever sad
forever labelled “mad”
Poverty is a weapon
of mass destruction
and saying it
seems so out of fashion…