I’ve been told, day in and day out,
A little hard work and an honest belly full of rice:
We’ll have money, well-tended wives and solid fences.
Now we wonder, have all those been lies?
The man works until the moon is pregnant,
Round and succulent, but the wife remains dissatisfied.
It’s the inflation, the market crash or the oil crisis
Or any one of those innumerable things no one can put to right.
The local college pops out kids, year in and year out,
A little hard work and a kind steady heart:
We’ll have jobs, certainty and rented places without mice.
Now we wonder, have all those been lies?
Raisa Anan Mustakin’s poems have been published in the Oxford University Poetry Society, UNICEF Voices of Youth, Ekstasis Magazine, Poetry Potion, Down in the Dirt Magazine, Poets for Science, Synchronized Chaos Journal and The Beatnik Cowboy. Her poems dwell in deep introspection, wondering what it means to be a human being.