Oh child, you with your hair looped
down your back, your dress like my ancestor's,
your eyes blank and polite
You are being prepared, cut to a pattern
like eyelet cropped to fit apron,
your joy stitched to the length of your hem
from the ground you will pace like a calfless cow
Oh child, dreams cut sharp around your ears,
hopes snapped in your western shirt,
groomed like a farmer, a cattleman,
a keeper of fences and women
How I ache for you to know freedom
from those things I can only guess at
What I do know, children, is your programming,
your guilt, the oppressed spirit
that leaves you little personal passion,
few moments of joy like Sunday’s feet
swinging beneath the pew, because they can
What I do wish is for justice for this cropping,
this pinched petal childhood to be nurtured
so you know flowers are not here to compete
but to enhance your uniqueness
Children, you are not common at all,
nor plain, nor simple and we have been silent
and slow in rescuing you from a maelstrom
that would sweep your beauty beneath the feet of Elders
Come, come, know what real love is,
what parenting can do to encourage you to fly
your own dear and deep path you can carve in an endless sky
where anything is possible, even to you
who were almost grounded already
Come, I am not your enemy. I am the child
who thought heretical thoughts in Church
about not feeling guilty for being born,
who wants you to dance until your hair leaps free,
until your stones in your pockets fall out
and the ground sings at your unfolding
Author notes
I cannot get their plight out of my head. Right now they damned if they do and damned if they don'tt...the chidlren, the law, the workers, the parents.... what an awful but necessary thing...the chidlren have to be protected against all atrocities to human rights.
A contest entry
- Enter whateve it is you're working on RIGHT NOW !!! by Loveandblessings2u.
700 points, ended May 12, 2008, 23 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
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OMG ~~~ This is so touching.
You have done an wonderful job on this piece.
A very powerful piece of writing.
loveandblessings2u & yours always
joyce
good luck in my contest. -
Excellent
What a powerful creation for the theme. You really touch the heart with this issue. Best of luck in the contest.
-
Carol . . . my eyes are misting up as I read this . . . it is one of the most powerful and relevent writes I have come across in a long, long time . . . blessings on you sister for composing such a piece of creative anguish . . . Marc
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