rioting in London

These barbaric youth:
assaulting, breaking, pillaging,
and setting fires
in the liberal metropolis
of London

Do they think they're
impoverished and ill-treated?
We poor in America
don't get half the welfare
or half the social services
they do...
and yet mostly we make do
without burning our cities down

How many times
have I cursed barren heaven
that I might have been born
in England or Germany...
that my grandfather had never
left Sweden
to leave me here mad and neglected
in this "land of opportunity"

and you, recent arrivals
who have it for free:
health care, education,
a social safety net...
you spoiled urban children,
you shake the earth
and riot as if you were
the wretched helots of Sparta,
smashing windows in your sixty-pound Nikes
sewn by those overseas
who know both work and oppression
so much better than you

after you've escaped
or been dealt with in the gentle manner
of modern Britain
(compared with what you'd catch even here,)
go to school
and learn to read
to enjoy your beautiful libraries,
your beautiful parks,
and the beautiful European world...
of which you now
so crudely take advantage