I Am A Child Poem by Germina Melius

For money, she trades with strangers.
The woman who bore me hands me over.
Without a glance, her feet quickens down the old dirt road.
My noise becomes a silent plea.

Working like your donkey, allergic to grass,
my stomach rumbles like a rolling stone.
Man loves gold, not a coin in my pocket.
I am a child.
Did you forget?

They make me swallow words.
I used to speak.
Forced to love my condition,
carry fear in stony silence,
whipped with callousness, my skin bruised,
back hurting like thorns in my brain.
I swallowed grief, my tears disappeared.

I am worn, my mother's hand a distant shadow,
father unknown, I am a prisoner of brittle dreams,
shattering in your cruel world of headaches and broken backs.
My mother's love I need like light drowning the darkness.

Angels whispers loudly in my ear
‘Freedom to go to school, asking questions without fear,
and the play grounds awaits with friends like family.'
Time listens and watches,
his hands gigantic waves ready to unravel you.


Relief hugs me.
Food lingers in my mind with new apparel,
hair confined by a pony tail.
My saviours embrace me with assurance,
‘you are safe now.'
Inside my body, my broken heart begins to disappear.
watching your world fade away, slave master.

© 2020