Jan bach

A Tribute to Charles Dickens.

He saw what others avoided

The exploitation of poverty,

The slavery of the soul.

He decided it could not continue

And made it his business to state the obvious,

That the rich abused the poor.

 

Those in power abhorred the thought of change.

Why shouldn`t they?

As things were so they should remain.

For profit.

For wealth.

To maintain an accustomed lifestyle.

 

So what if girls were born to prostitution.

If men and women, already stick thin from malnutrition were hanged

For stealing a loaf of bread.

That people lived in hovels infested by cockroaches and rats

Was not of their concern.

As long as they paid their rent what did it matter!

 

It was the order of things.

The law of  “balance”.

To “have” and “have not”.

It was going against the law of nature,

That which God surely decreed

To change!

 

But to him it did matter.

It caused him pain and anger.

He saw these things,

Mans` inhumanity to man

And resolved that it would change.

 

Clever man then, to tell his stories.

To force realisation onto the world.

His characters drew sympathy

An outcry at their lot ! 

Wise man.

His “people” became alive,

Were recognised and loved and once that happened,

Events began to change.

 

His stories would change history.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

Clever,

Wise man,

To know this.     

 

Jan Wharton