Today the prompt is to write an elegy that also contains and element of hope.
Jimmy Saville
For many years the media lauded your fundraising efforts,
And the public saw a genial and rather odd man,
Loveable perhaps, laughable for sure, but always
Positive and ready to help.
Friend of the sick and halt, helper of the lame,
And lover of little children.
When you died, the world wept, or some of it did,
Other parts did not weep, and felt relief,
Gladness, that loosening feeling at the end of the ordeal.
It seems strange to offer your death as a moment of hope,
But it is, it was, and it remains so, as it was
The catalyst that allowed the revelation of an age
Of abuse, it allowed the silent ones a voice that
For the first time was being listened to.
From your life, which amidst the evil and corruption
Also offered good, a bizarre silver lining of money
To expiate incompletely the sins of the donor,
From your life has grown a generation of people who
Are less afraid to shout out "Me Too", and a newly
Empowered voice granted to women who for too long
Have been told to be quiet and smile.
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