SUMMER IN THE CITY 2012

As the News is full of The Olympics and reprises of last year’s riots, spare a thought for the friends and family of TIA SHARP, a 12 year old local girl who has now been missing for 4 days. Help find her if you can, if just to pray to your own particular God.

Just a year ago today
Croydon was burning.
Looters were looting.
A black smoking space stood yawning where
Once was the oldest shop in town.
People stood, too stunned to weep
Or run away;
Watching their burning homes.
Watching helpless police stand there.

Today again in Croydon Town
Reeves corner is on the news;
The place where a smoking skeleton loomed
Is now a fenced-off space –
But the fences are adorned
With historic photos of what once was there;
And bright murals painted by the young
To show their hopes;
To show they care,
To show that we believe
All youth’s not doomed.

I ride a tram home to the end of the line;
Past our bright new Co-op.
Last year, a burnt out shell
Like the old Reeves’ shop.
One year ago the looters came
They came on tram and bus and train
To this big estate -
No police to stem the tide.
So they began to burn and thieve.
The Community two nights stood guard -
Nowhere to hide.
They never came again.

Once more today The People’s Army forms.
A girl is missing.
A community is searching
Four days they’ve searched each bit of ground.
Hundreds volunteer to help
Print twenty thousand flyers or more -
Leaflets with her picture.
All delivered door to door
On the estate and places little known,
And throughout Olympic London.
This time The Addo Army say :
‘This child is mine!
She will be found!!
Woe betide who harms one of our own!’

Police brought in from far away
Don’t know this area
Full of woods and dark places;
Don’t know the people
Don’t know their faces;
Our cops have more important tasks –
The Olympics are in town.
What can be more important than a child’s life?
The entire Community asks.

Side by side
Day and night
They search in their own way
Police and residents
Old and young.
Black and white
Sisters and brothers.
If she’s not home today
The Family and Community will pray
And bring more blazing candles
To light her homeward way,