THE BABY IN THE BASKET

“Whatever Madonna’s original motives were for adopting 13 month old David Banda, from the mission run Home of Hope orphanage in Malawi, are now irrelevant. The backlash has suffocated the original motivation.”

The baby in the basket
the mother in the press
the father back in Africa
the balance to redress.
The baby in the basket
the quality of spin
the torn veil of secrecy
the good name wearing thin.
The poverty, the emptiness
in Africa and the West
everyone is desperate
and doing their selfish best.
The paucity of charity
the inability to mask it
the general lack of thought
for the baby in the basket.

The baby in the basket
who might have one day worked a field
with his father spraying crops
has become the baby in the basket
that Madonna chose to wield
as the latest in a string of celebrity props.

The baby in the basket
may receive a better start in life
with Lourdes and Guy and Madge
but the baby in the basket
will know a higher class of strife
born of being worn as a celebrity’s badge.

The baby in the basket
may well be free from poverty
but now he’s tangled in another trap.
The baby in the basket,
foisted with newfound celebrity,
won’t escape the corruption of luxury’s lap.

The baby in the basket
the mother in the press
the father back in Africa
the balance to redress.
The baby in the basket
the quality of spin
the torn veil of secrecy
the good name wearing thin.
The poverty, the emptiness
in Africa and the West
everyone is desperate
and doing their selfish best.
The paucity of charity
the inability to mask it
the general lack of thought
for the baby in the basket.