Be Strong! You Can Survive! Don't Be A Number! Poem by Veeraiyah Subbulakshmi

thinking of children, parents and partners,
of these numbers, our strong hearts weep,

once upon a time antibiotics not available,
bacilli killed many loving lungs, including my mum.

what a six years old know about life and death,
except warmth of their functional home and fun,

Be Strong! Don't give up for those love you,
Be composed! Fight back, chances abound,

The last time when I visited my mum as a kid,
she told me these words with another promise

'I will come back, child, to take care of you,
iron your clothes and send you to school

She was fair and thin with long hair,
lied on plaited coconut leaves for last rite

a child in me cried, but I didn't cry,
holding my older sisters and a younger tight,

I asked my elder sister, ' what is death? '
she told me from buried dead people worms come out

young children always trust their mother,
whatever others say they won't believe..

Where even I go, I feel her presence,
so many people love me for some reason.

Love of a parent not have any equals,
don't let another child as me to suffer in silence.

Please wake up! you have duties a lot,
Please Hurry up! time not running out