has anybody read the poem "let the children decide" by don mattera?

Answer 1

No, I haven't. Is it any good?

Answer 2

Don Mattera has been one of my most highly regarded writers. The poem is a social criticism urging an end to racism for the sake of children. I have been in contact with Mattera for long. I hope you have read his autobiography: Sophiatown. He is a "colored" South African writer. He can well be studied comparatively alongside Afr-Amer. James McBride's The color of Water. Both writers question dismiss race as merely a social category given their own origins. Mattera and McBride's moms were white, dads, black. If you want more I can provide it later.
The poem is pretty straightforward but you may also refer to the links attached. I 'm flattered to find reference to Don. I thought very few people knew about his life and works. He is my hero and I admire his tenacious clinging to life during apartheid South Africa. He was a journalist, a writer, a poet, and a gentleman.
Good luck.
**

"Let the children decide"

Let us halt this quibbling

Of reform and racial preservation

Saying who belongs to which nation

And let the children decide

It is their world.



Let us burn our uniforms

Of old scars and grievances

And call back our spent dreams

And the relics of crass tradition

That hang on our malignant hearts

And let the children decide

For it IS their world

-- Don Mattera