I wondered in my Black molasses skin as I heard
Louis’ raspy voice lull ‘What a wonderful world’.
Did he wear some kind of special glasses?
That blotted out our oppression and separation of classes?
The rioting and brutality the police issued
Because today, I don’t see trees of green, red roses too.
I see the poor turning green with envy
For the political blood-stained money.
I see red roses but not in my council estate
Where pavements are painted in blood red because of hate.
‘I see them bloom for me and you’
Mister Armstrong, I sincerely wish this was true
But instead, I think to myself what a wicked world
‘And I think to myself what a wonderful world.’
‘I see skies of blue and clouds of white’
Louis, those clouds have changed from1965
At this moment, everyone is trying to combat with the swine flu attack
The clouds are filled with bombs going off in Afghanistan, and Iraq.
These people don’t look to the skies for the blue often
As most of the time, they are encased in a concrete coffin.
‘The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night’,
My family is being killed for their faith while the media looses sight
Sorry Mister Armstrong but there is no blessed day!
There seems to be no peace or hope for a weary stray,
For us in the land of living who is trying to make lemons into ‘ades.
Did I mention the famines, the wars, the cancers, and the AIDS?!
And I think to myself what a reckless world.
‘And I think to myself what a wonderful world.’
If there is one thing I can agree with in this song that makes me cry,
It’s that the ‘The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky’
Because it’s the perfect symbol of hope in the centre of this world’s circle,
Captured by the light filtered through the rain prism, to give me purple.
My favourite colour, same as lavender, precious amethyst, and aubergine,
I long and dream to exchange my rags for royal robes belonging to a queen
So I can leave this forsaken hatred of the injustice we call the system
That systematically arrest, quest, forgets, and throw you away into prison.
‘Are also on the faces of people going by’. Well not now, not anymore Lou!
The disadvantaged youth would paint another picture as most of them die before 22
You sing, ‘I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do’
Friends become foes as easily as we turn cold because death is nothing new
Mr. Armstrong you may sing ‘They’re really saying I love you.’
I say don’t be mistaken because “love” have lead to rapes, greed, and abuse.
Children growing up without fathers because the adults are reckless,
And mothers giving up on their children because they feel helpless.
‘I hear babies crying, I watch them grow’
But I see babies being smothered before they reach one year old
Baby P is just another one in our statistics
Newspapers question how social workers missed it?
I say because like most of them, we close our eyes to the untold
Horry stories but we say, ‘They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know’.
Yeah Mister Armstrong, I grew up and have learnt more that you’ll ever know
And now I can think to myself, what a wasteful world.
‘And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself what a wonderful world.’
By Dionne Williams


Latest posts by Dionne Williams (see all)
- Poetry: ‘And I Think To Myself’ — February 1, 2017
- Decolonize The Mind: Is Black Culture Selling Us Out? — January 18, 2017