Whether To Help The Drowning

There’s a big debate going on in Europe

over whether to save a drowning man,

to pull him out of the water or let him drown.

And women and children.

Italians have tied up their rescue ships,

the problem being what to do 

with capsized rafts and rafts of people.

Should they let them drown or take them ashore,

offer succor and risk being taken in themselves

if they can’t pay and yet wish to eat?

It is easier not to look, of course.

But you might still hear them, 

or some journalist with a camera,

in which case, you’d have to pull them out.

They have to pull them out.

We have to pull them out.