Benevolence

On and on the clustered paths
Of  ragged villages and slums
Through poverty, stench and harsh reality

Plods the rumbling bus .

Children; boys and girls,
Blank, white, bloodless,
Stare with popping pupils.

Protruding bellies.
Dirty, stained knickers.
Brown, unoiled,matted hair.
Faces unwashed, 

Marked  from last night's  dried  saliva .

With rheumy eyes they stare 

at the man in the bus.
He smiles at them.

Suddenly an act of benevolence.
Something colourful falls.

They run, they gasp,
They bend, they pick up.
They look up 
At the smiling  man in the bus.

Six hands pull the packet apart.
They don't know what .
Everything falls on the dusty path.
So What!

They bend,they pick up.
They dust off the dust.
They eat the chips that was thrown to them
From the man in the bus.